Alpha Strike Team
by Hamsta97
Summary: A long time ago the world found out about mutants. Fury put together a team of mutants for SHIELD. Then Budapest happened. Then the Avengers happened. Then the rest of their lives happened. This is Alpha Strike's story. AU!
1. Prologue

**Summary: A long time ago the world found out about mutants. Fury put together a team of mutants for SHIELD. Then Budapest happened. Then the Avengers happened. Then the rest of their lives happened. This is Alpha Strike's story. AU!**

The meeting room of the Helicarrier had a huge screen in the centre and twelve shadowy figures on the screen. In the middle of the room was a huge table, bearing the SHIELD logo. Sat around that table were five different people. They were Nick Fury, director of SHIELD and his top four agents, Phil Coulson, Maria Hill, Jasper Sitwell and Jessica Drew.

"The mutant problem…" began one shadowy figure.

Fury interrupted. "The mutant problem can be solved. If we have a team that are mutants we can combat the problem."

"Who do you suggest?" asked another shadowy figure.

"We have five possible recruits."

"Then get recruiting."

The screen switched off and the five rose to their feet.

"You all know who you're recruiting. Go." said Fury.

They all left the meeting room.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Logan lifted his head as he listened to the roar of men around the cage. _Seventeen and cage-fighting for a living. What a fuckin' fantastic life._ He shook himself as his next competitor entered the cage. Two minutes later and the man was unconscious or dead. Logan didn't care either way. After he jumped out of the cage he walked into the bar to get his money. He reassured himself with a quick glance and a sniff that neither Victor nor any cops were hanging round. Though it was hard to track him, so far in the last… seven years. Had it really been seven years since he'd killed his father? He collected his wages and headed out to his truck. It wasn't much and he hadn't actually passed his driving test. Why waste money?

"Nice fighting… Logan."

Logan whipped round, his claws itching to come out. The speaker stepped into view. He was tall, with a bald head and an eye-patch. Logan almost laughed but the man seemed… intimidating somehow.

"Thanks. Ya shoulda bet on me."

The man laughed. "I did. Heavily. And if this works it'll be incredible."

Logan raised an eyebrow. That didn't sound like mere money.

"I know what you can do Logan. Or should I say James Howlett?"

Logan's insides turned to ice. "I don't know what ya talkin' bout."

The man smiled. "Are you saying you didn't stab your father with the six bone claws in your hands? I understand why you did it Logan. Your mother, the only person that ever showed you kindness, was dead, more than likely killed by your brother or father. They carried on using you as a punching bag. You got angry. Then you disappeared. You caused quite a stir when you were ten. You've learnt to control your powers now. I'd hate to see what a seventeen-year-old you could do."

Logan leaned against his truck and lit a cigar. His hand shook and he quickly hid it. This guy was no ordinary cop. There was a huge chance he'd get shot again. It hurt but he'd heal. He always did.

"I want you to join a team I'm putting together. It's called the Alpha Strike Team. A team of mutants with similar histories to you fighting the bad guys."

"Why should I join ya? I don't even know ya name or who ya workin' fer."

"I'm Fury. Director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division."

"That's a mouthful."

Fury smiled again. "We call ourselves SHIELD. So, are you in?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Of course you do."

Logan and Fury looked at each other, both silently acknowledging that they knew Fury's last words had been bullshit.

"When do I start?"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Clint lifted his head as he heard the roar of the crowd. His act had just finished. For most people running away to the circus sounded incredibly romantic and glamorous. For a fifteen-year-old Clint it was hell. He got to his feet and began to leave the big top.

"Hey! Where are you goin'?" asked Barney aggressively.

"I was gonna go and get cleaned up. My act's over." said Clint.

Keeping calm was about the only thing Clint knew how to do, other than shoot arrows and swear.

"Tough." snarled Barney as he stepped closer to Clint. "You gotta stay here 'til the circus is over."

With that he pushed Clint to the floor. Clint stayed lying on the floor until his brother had left and one of the clowns gave him a hand up.

"You OK?" asked the clown worriedly.

"Been worse."

After the show was over Clint headed to Swordsman's train car. He pushed it open in time to see Barney and Swordsman splitting a huge amount of money.

"Where did you get that?"

"None of your business." sneered Barney.

Just then Clint remembered the ringmaster getting robbed.

"You robbed the circus!"

Swordsman snatched up a blade and Clint ran for his life. Weaving his way through the debris of circus life he ended up in the big top. Barney and Swordsman appeared from both entrances.

"You killed Buck, didn't you? He found out what you were doin' and you killed him!"

"Oui." said Swordsman calmly.

Clint tried to run but Swordsman had already crossed the gap and stabbed him in the leg. Barney followed up by drawing out a blade. Then there was a shout and both men turned their heads. Clint didn't glance round. He limped away as fast as his leg would allow.

"Get him!" shouted Swordsman.

Barney came barrelling after him. Clint grabbed a Coke can that somebody had left and threw it in Barney's face. That only made the older boy madder. He grabbed Clint by his arm and broke it. Clint could hear the arm crack. He kicked out and Barney slashed the leg with his knife. Then the blade sliced across his throat. There was a loud bang but it hardly registered with Clint. Barney laughed.

"You're dead now baby brother. Dead. How does that feel?"

There was another loud bang and Barney stumbled away. Clint looked up blearily.

"Hi. My name's Phil."

Phil came into view as a man, average height, average build. Hell, he even wore average clothes. Everything about the guy was designed to be forgettable. Clint grunted slightly as his vision began to blur.

"I came to ask you to join a team. A team of highly trained people with powers like you have."

Clint's leg felt like it was on fire, his side was white-hot and his throat… his throat burned worse than the others. He could barely speak and only with immense effort did he work out what Phil was saying.

"I…how… did…"

"I know?" finished Phil helpfully. "We've been watching you for a year. Will you join?"

Clint replied thickly, "Don't… have…much… choice."

With that Phil got out a cell phone and pressed a button.

"I need a medical team. Multiple stab wounds, one to the leg, one to the side and one to the throat."

Then Clint heard no more.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::

Natasha didn't bother looking behind as the fire went up. People screamed but she kept walking away.

"That's suspicious." said a woman.

Natasha whipped round to look at the tall black-haired woman smirking at her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Natasha replied.

"Sure you don't… Black Widow."

Natasha starts to draw her gun but the woman sends out a web string, wraps it round Natasha's gun and jerks it back. The woman smiles slightly.

"I'm impressed. But next time, look at what you've caused. That way it diverts suspicion. Which reminds me, I'm Agent Drew of SHIELD. I've been sent to recruit you for Alpha Strike Team. They're a team of mutants, just like you."

Natasha looked at Agent Drew and realised that she could sense no lie. The woman was telling the truth. And suddenly, Natasha wanted to go with her and have a different life. At least in this one she'd have a team.

"Alright. Let's go."

Drew smiled.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Piotr lifted his head as he heard screams coming from the commune. His first thought was that Ivan Onatopp was back and ready to kill. Piotr rushed out to see the sight he was having nightmares about. Russian soldiers were racing all over the commune, burning and shooting. His brother, Mikhail, was an enemy of the State and the State was determined to kill him. Piotr ran forwards, his skin turning to metal as he ran. He passed several dead friends in time to see Mikhail fall to the ground with a bullet wound in his forehead.

"Piotr… I… am… sorry…"

With that he was gone. Piotr didn't stop to hug him or cry. He turned and snapped the soldier's neck. Then he grabbed the machine gun and emptied the clip at several more soldiers. Charging through the burning commune he saw his father lying dead on the ground. His expression was one of acute pain. So Piotr ran on, tossing soldiers aside, snapping their necks and backs. His mother was dead, curled around Illyana to protect her.

"Little Snowflake." said Piotr softly as he knelt down.

Illyana looked up at him and lifted her hand. It was covered in blood.

"I cut myself. It hurts."

Her eyes closed. Piotr got to his feet, grabbed a gun and started shooting again. By now he'd stopped caring about if more soldiers came, how hated he would become; he just wanted to slaughter the people that had killed his family.

"Very impressive." said an American man in Russian.

Piotr turned, gun raised. "Who are you?"

The man replied, "Agent Sitwell. Let me explain. I'm here to ask you if you want to join Alpha Strike Team. It's a team of people with abilities like you. Are you joining?"

"Da."

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Kurt fled for his life as he heard the angry villagers behind him, shouting about demons. He flew over the bridge. An arm grabbed him and yanked him under the bridge. Looking round he saw a woman with a gun out, her eyes serious.

"Danke."

"My name's Agent Hill." said the woman, completely ignoring his thanks. "I'm here to recruit into a specialist team called Alpha Strike. It's a group of people with unique abilities like you. What do you say Kurt?"

Kurt blinked. That sounded good. Hopefully there would be no crazy people insisting he was a psychotic demon that killed them in their sleep and drank blood.

"Ja."

"Then get us out of here."

Kurt grabbed her hand and they vanished with a loud bang and puff of blue smoke.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Fury glanced over at his oldest recruit. Logan looked in a foul mood. He'd been given more time to grab all his stuff and leave, not that there was much. He was wearing a black Stetson, a white shirt that had a small tear in it, blue jeans that were also torn thanks to many cage fights, a battered leather jacket and heavy boots. A shotgun was strapped on his back and a wide belt that bore several signs of use. Fury knew that Logan used to wrap it round his hand to help restrict his claws.

"When do the others get here?" asked Logan harshly.

"Soon."

Fury actually found it sad that most of a seventeen-year-old boy's clothes were torn and ripped. He also found it sad that Logan bound his hands to stop his claws bursting out.

"I hear 'em." said Logan suddenly.

The door swung open and Logan got his first look at a mutant that wasn't related to him and didn't want to beat the shit out of him. The boy was younger and smaller than Logan. His sandy blond hair was spiked and his blue eyes were dark and intense. His shirt was purple and had a rip around the neckline. His sleeveless jacket looked a little too big for him, like it was bought for someone else and then given to him. His jeans were faded and ripped in various places, not by design Logan suspected. His blue and purple sneakers had spots of blood on them. In one hand he had a bow and on his back he had a quiver full of arrows. His left arm was in a sling. He had a bandage across his throat. Logan could smell a familiar kind of pain.

"Hi." said the boy before sitting stiffly in a seat. His voice was scratchy and raw.

"I'm Agent Phil Coulson James, I'm going to be your handler." said the agent that had accompanied him in.

"Logan. I hate the name James."

The boy gave him a dazzling smile. "I'm Clint. Clint Barton. So… Jamie."

Logan looked at Clint and replied, "James Howlett but like I said, I hate the name James. Everybody calls me Logan."

Clint countered, "I didn't call you James. I called you Jamie."

Coulson and Fury exchanged glances. Then the door swung open again and a girl walked in. Her clothes were jet black from her jacket to her shirt to the holster on her hip to the slacks to the sneakers. The only things that weren't black were her hair and skin. Her eyes were bright green and her hair was bright red. Unbidden, an image of Rose drifted into his mind. Logan shoved the image away, reminding himself that Rose had never worn a gun and didn't have a permanent scowl.

"Hi." said Clint in his scratchy voice. "I'm Clint Barton and that's Jamie."

Logan scowled. "My name's James Howlett but everybody calls me Logan. So ignore that dick."

The girl nodded and allowed a flash of smile to cross her face. "I'm Natasha Romanoff."

Clint put his hand to his throat and said, "I'm Batman."

It made his voice deeper. Logan and Natasha exchanged looks before bursting out laughing. Clint grinned, delighted that he'd made someone laugh. The door swung open again and in walked a boy and an agent. The boy made even Logan whistle.

"Damn."

The boy sat down on a chair and it creaked. Clint felt like a ten-year-old next to the two far taller boys.

"I am Piotr Rasputin."

Piotr was wearing clothes that seemed too big for even him. His grey T-shirt was stretched and his jeans baggy. His heavy black boots were the only things that weren't too big. Logan introduced himself and Clint, sparing Clint from talking. The pain meds were wearing off and talking was hurting more and more. His side was beginning to ache and his leg was starting to burn. He glanced up at Coulson, hoping to make him realise without having to use his vocal chords. Coulson got the message and handed the pills over with water.

"What are they for?" asked Piotr.

Clint pointed to his throat and arm. Piotr nodded and then the door opened yet again. This time a blue boy bounded in. Clint was unfazed by it; he'd worked in the circus and seen stranger stuff. He had a heavy brown trench coat over his red shirt and faded jeans.

"You can take your coat off." said Hill.

The boy shrugged it off, revealing a tail. The team were introduced to each other again and Fury got to his feet.

"Well, welcome to the Alpha Strike Team."


	2. Playing Pool and Saying Hi

Alpha Strike was sent into another room to relax before training started. Clint moved quickest, darting into the next room and laying claim to the sofa. Logan grunted but his eyes lit up when he spotted the pool table.

"Anybody wanna play pool?" he asked, seemingly casual.

"I don't know how to play." said Natasha.

This news horrified Logan. "What?! Then I'll teach ya."

Natasha didn't get a chance to argue.

"How old are you?" asked Kurt.

"Me? I'm eighteen." replied Logan as he set up the table.

"Fifteen two months ago." was Natasha's reply.

"I am seventeen. And you comrade?"

Clint croaked, "Six…teen in… two… weeks. Meds… not…"

Logan offered, "Kicked in?"

Clint nodded enthusiastically. They learnt that Kurt was sixteen as well. The talk turned to their powers.

"Well," said Logan as he watched Natasha put a ball away, "I can do this."

He slid his bone claws out. Clint stretched his good arm out to them. Logan put them nearer. Clint's hand ran over them as he stared at them. There was no fear in his eyes, just wonder. That felt good for Logan.

"What can ya do?" he asked.

Clint replied slowly, "Turn… hawk… Got… wings… Called… Hawkeye."

Piotr and Kurt's grasp of English didn't stretch to understanding a hoarse Iowan. Natasha's did however and she explained it to them. Clint's eyes drooped and he valiantly fought to keep them open.

"What about you Natalia?" asked Piotr.

Natasha looked faintly stunned to be called 'Natalia'. Logan's natural curiosity and Clint's grating question prompted Logan to ask why he called her that. Piotr explained that 'Natasha' was the Westernised version of 'Natalia'. The girl in question demonstrated her ability to crawl up the walls and stay upside down on the ceiling. Then she flipped off and landed perfectly. She flashed them a grin.

"Not bad." said Logan grinning.

Kurt teleported from one end of the room to the other. Piotr turned into metal. Then Clint's eyelids gave up the unequal struggle and closed. Logan won the pool match and smirked.

"I'm guessin' ya ain't ever lost anythin' before, right?"

"Right." growled Natasha.

"Reckon they've got a basketball court?" asked Logan.

"Yes we have." said a voice.

They all turned to see Agent Drew stood there. She glanced down at Clint's sleeping form.

"The medicine." supplied Piotr.

Drew rolled her eyes. "Alright. I'll be teaching you how to control your powers. This is your hand-to-hand teacher, Danny Rand."

"Hi."

**Sorry about the filler but I couldn't work out how to show them just meeting each other any other way. Please R&R!**


	3. This Just Got Real

Logan lifted his head from his pillow as he heard screaming. He couldn't sleep and the screaming bothered him. He slipped out of bed and followed the screaming to Clint's room. He inserted one claw into the lock and walked in. Clint was thrashing in the bed, screaming and whimpering. Logan sat on the bed.

"Hey Clint. Wake up kid."

Logan shook the younger boy gently. Clint's eyes snapped open. They weren't their usual stormy blue. They were yellow.

"Clint!"

Clint blinked hazily and curled into Logan's side.

"Ya OK?"

Clint muttered under his breath and tugged Logan. Against all his instincts Logan lay down next to him and wrapped one arm round the smaller boy to keep himself anchored to the bed. Clint's eyes closed.

"Barney." he mumbled.

Logan sighed. He had no idea who Barney was and didn't want to know. He just guessed it was to do with Clint's throat.

When Natasha walked in to wake Clint up she discovered Logan perched on the edge of the bed with his powerful arm round Clint's body. Clint was curled up next to him with his head resting against Logan's chest.

"Logan? Clint?"

Logan woke up blearily. He turned over and promptly fell off the bed. Natasha arched an eyebrow. Clint woke up seconds later, a knife in his hand.

"Put it down." growled Logan.

They all slept with weapons in their bed, apart from Logan. He felt that since he had six bone knives in his hands he didn't need a goddamn weapon. Clint got to his feet. Natasha was already dressed in her standard SHIELD outfit. Logan was wearing his sweatpants and nothing else. Clint only had boxers on.

"Can you scram while I get dressed?" asked Clint.

Logan looked at the feathery wings on Clint's back. They fluttered slightly. His stomach was muscled but also smooth, like plastic.

"I'm gonna go get dressed." said Logan as he walked off.

Clint could feel Natasha's knowing stare on his back.

"What?"

"Nothing. Just wondering why Logan was in here."

"I don't know, OK?! I woke up this mornin' and he was in here!"

"Heard ya screamin'. Thought ya'd kill yaself if I left ya alone."

Clint swore under his breath as he found his shirt. He then followed the other two out of the room down into the canteen. The adult agents were sat; talking and watching the Alpha Strike Team make their way around the canteen. Kurt and Piotr were already there. Clint found an apple and toast. For some reason oatmeal knocked him sick so everybody avoided it. They sat down.

"Good morning comrades." said Piotr in his deep voice.

Kurt looked up as he heard an agent snicker. Coulson, Drew and Rand were walking over. They sat down and Kurt instantly began to worry. Last time all three had sat down it was to tell the boys off for fixing Natasha's toilet to explode.

"Can ve help you?" asked Kurt.

"You've got your first test mission." said Coulson.

Phil was proud of his mutant teens. They'd only come together six weeks earlier. He smiled slightly as the expressionless faces of them. When the last agent, a 37-year-old who'd slaughtered their way through most of Europe, had been given their first training mission they'd grinned like a madman. Five teens on the other hand just blinked. In fact, the only time Phil had seen them displaying emotion was when they were drugged (Clint's meds were quite strong and he'd slipped Piotr some) or at Clint's 16th four weeks ago.

"You can display emotion you know." said Danny, sighing.

He was the official trainer for SHIELD and had trained almost every agent. But he'd never seen talent like the Alpha Strike Team had. Logan could almost land Danny on his back already after only six weeks. Clint had had two weeks less training the all than all the others and it showed.

"Zat is boring is it not _freund_?" asked Kurt mischievously.

"I give up." sighed Jessica.

She flashed Natasha a quick grin before getting to her feet and leaving. Natasha returned the small smile before turning back to Coulson. He got to his feet.

"Come on. You've got uniforms."

The team eagerly followed him out of the canteen and down into a room they'd never seen before. Coulson handed them out. Natasha raised an eyebrow but withdrew to get changed. Logan and Piotr grappled with theirs for a few minutes before they sorted themselves out. Clint and Kurt on the other hand wrestled for half an hour. Eventually Logan guided Clint's wings through his two custom-made holes and Piotr helped work Kurt's tail through.

"Here are the photos of your targets. We're dropping you off in New York. Enjoy kids."

Two hours later, long enough to grab weapons, and they were on a jet. They landed on the outskirts of New York four hours after that. They hadn't wasted the flight though. They memorised the faces of the targets and discussed strategies. Clint and Logan also grabbed some much-needed sleep.

"We're here." said the pilot.

"See you around Grimm." said Logan as he ducked out.

The five of them walked around the outskirts of the town.

"Hey Hawkeye, Nightcrawler, put the trench coats on." ordered Wolverine.

They shrugged them on quickly and waited for further instructions. The coats covered their weapons and Kevlar.

"Alright, Hawkeye get on the roof and start lookin' fer the targets."

Hawkeye nodded. Nightcrawler teleported him onto the roof.

"Nightcrawler, start at the other end of town and work ya way back."

He disappeared. Colossus ambled next to Wolverine. Black Widow was watching the shadows.

"Get into the alley." growled Wolverine.

The two Russians ducked into the shadows and watched one man hurry along, his collar turned up against the rain. He bumped into two other men, apologised and hurried on.

"Widow, with me. There two o' our guys. Colossus, take the other."

Colossus nodded and quickly followed the other man. His trench coat was turned up to disguise his muscles and face. The man glanced behind him and dived down a deserted street. Colossus grinned as he moved a little closer, grabbed the man from behind and squeezed gently.

"Dead."

"You got me pal." laughed the agent. "Sitwell told me you were good."

He walked off and Colossus spoke into his comm link. "I got one."

"Me and Wolverine got two more."

Nightcrawler spoke next. "Zat makes four down."

"Hawkeye? Hawkeye! Nightcrawler, find him!" shouted Wolverine.

Nightcrawler over the rooftops to see a man holding a gun and bearing down on a ledge. He teleported closer to see Hawkeye lying unconscious underneath it. Nightcrawler swore under his breath and teleported to the back of the man. He wrapped his tail round the man's throat.

"Dead."

"Fair enough but is he alright? I thought it was a trap but he didn't move."

Nightcrawler let go of the agent and hurried over. Blood was leaking from a cut in his head and his eyes were closed.

"Wolverine, we'll meet you at ze jet!"

Nightcrawler grabbed both the agent and Hawkeye before teleporting to the jet. Wolverine took Hawkeye off Nightcrawler before resting him on the seat.

"What happened?"

"No idea."

Phil thought he was going to be sick when he saw Clint being carried off the jet. Eventually he wakes up and rubs his head.

"What happened?" asked Phil bluntly.

Clint appeared to weigh up his options before speaking. "I was on the rooftop, searchin' for the targets when someone just rammed into me. I rolled and hit my head. That's it."

"I don't think ya suited ta searchin'." said Logan idly. "Maybe ya better at eliminatin'."

Clint smiled sheepishly at the others. When he could he made an excuse and left their room. Logan got to his feet and followed him to the observatory. The boy curled up and stared at the stars. Logan walked in and sat down next to him.

"Hey kid. What's up?"

Clint wondered about lying to Logan but he knew there was no point. "I'm the worst at hand-to-hand, I was the only one who got hurt on the practice mission. I'm the worst at pretty much everythin'!"

Logan replied calmly, "No ya not. Shut up and listen. I heard Coulson tellin' Fury that ya the best long-range assassin in decades."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I've been doin' a lotta thinkin' when Rand makes us meditate. Every team needs things ta make it work. We got all the components. A leader…"

Clint interrupted, "Would that be you?"

"Yes."

Clint snickered but shut up when Logan growled deep in his throat.

"We've got a bruiser. That's Tinman. We've got the guy who gets us outta trouble. That's Elf. We've got the spy. That's Nat. Then we've got the kickass super sniper who watches our backs and takes out the bad guys. That would ya."

Clint fought back a grin. Phil stepped through the door.

"You'd better be packed in ten minutes. You passed the test and now you've got two weeks off. You can use my London flat as a base."

He stepped to the side as he watched the two shoot off. He fought back a smile. They were good kids.

"I wanna call shotgun!"


	4. London

**A/N: Just a little team-bonding chapter here! Maybe a cameo of other Marvel characters as well.**

Natasha picked up her bag off the carousel and stepped back. They were in Heathrow Airport. Eventually everybody was reunited with their luggage with no blood shed. They found a taxi and Logan directed him to the address Phil had given them. They dragged their bags out and into the flat.

"It's so… Phil." said Natasha.

The flat was bare of all personal items and character. There were only three bedrooms. It was quickly decided that Natasha got the main room, Kurt and Piotr shared the bunk bed room and Clint and Logan were stuck with the single bed room.

"He smells!" whined Clint.

Logan rolled his eyes at the others. "C'mon. Let's go have a look around."

Clint pulled out a thick wad of notes.

"Where'd you get that?!" asked Natasha in disbelief.

"I found it in the airport."

Logan snorted. "In other people's pockets."

Clint grinned broadly as he passed out a few notes. He then led the way downstairs. They found a bar, a corner shop and a park. They ended up sat in the park watching Clint battle the monkey bars.

"He is such a child." sighed Natasha.

Kurt laughed. "Ve should be children ven ve are not vorking. Do you not agree?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. They continued to watch until Clint stormed over.

"That bossy woman kicked me out! Said the playground's for little kids!"

Piotr asked, "Did you tell her you _are_ a little kid?"

Clint scowled and Logan howled with laughter. He wrapped an arm around the smaller boy.

"C'mon Tinman! I'm the only one allowed ta pick on Hawk."

"Why?"

"Us Ferals gotta stick together."

That evening the quintet headed to the bar. They found themselves a quiet corner and got Piotr to order.

"I'm bored!" whined Clint.

"Play darts."

Clint vanished. Logan began slowly coaxing Kurt away from the vodka bottle. After three hours Logan declared that they needed to leave. Clint was hauled away from his darts game (he'd won £300 so far) and hauled to the apartment.

"OK, bedtime people!" said Logan. "Nick doesn't seem ta believe in givin' us a good night's sleep so we'll get some here."

Natasha vanished into her room, Kurt and Piotr also disappeared and Logan walked into the third room. Clint followed him in quietly.

"Ya gettin' in or not?" asked Logan.

Logan's eyelids started to droop. He felt Clint's wings brush his face as the smaller boy curled into him. The bed wasn't big enough for Logan by himself, never mind a 16-year-old boy with wings.

"Ya wanna move over a bit kid?"

Clint mumbled, "Can't. No room."

Logan sighed and resigned himself to not getting any sleep that night. Sometimes that wasn't always a bad thing. He wrapped an arm around Clint and pulled him closer.

He woke up to a punch in the face. Logan's eyes flew open as he scowled at Clint. His annoyed expression morphed into one of horror however when he saw the blond boy's face. His eyes had flown open and turned yellow. His mouth was wide open in a silent scream of terror. His left hand had flown to his hip and was midway through pulling out a knife. Logan reacted as quickly as he could to grab the knife.

"Clint! It's Logan. Breathe kid, just keep breathin'."

Eventually Logan talked Clint down enough for the younger one to realise the nightmare was over.

"Wanna share?"

"My brother. He cut my throat open."

Clint then held onto Logan like he was the last solid thing left. Logan was filled with boiling rage at the brother who'd caused Clint so much pain.

_The next morning…_

Logan woke up before Clint and managed to extricate himself from the teen's grasp. Slipping through to the kitchen he saw the other three waiting for an explanation. Their faces turned into scowls as they heard what Clint's brother had done.

"Hey guys." said a sleepy voice.

Clint emerged from the room, his hair sticking up. He wondered why he was getting strange looks until he remembered his nightmare. Logan pushed coffee over to him and he downed it in one.

"Clint…" began Kurt.

Clint replied, "None of us had it easy. No need to talk about it."

Piotr spoke. "Clint, we know your brother gave you the scar. But know this. He is no longer your brother just like Logan's older brother is no longer his and Mikhail is no longer a relative of mine. We are family now and a family protects its own."

Natasha glanced up. She was not only the youngest but the only girl on the team. It wasn't her fault she felt a little left out. Clint looked at her and gave her a broad grin which she returned.

"So, Nat." he said, a smirk on his face. "Who do you think is the best-lookin' outta us?"

They all leaned in to hear the answer.

"You of course, ястреб."

"What does that mean?" asked Logan.

"Hawk in Russian." replied Piotr.

Clint beamed. Kurt begged them to go to a church so off they all went. Logan wanted a cigar and stayed outside. Kurt rolled his eyes but hurried in. Piotr, Natasha and Clint followed him despite Clint's obvious hatred of the building.

"Nothin' against churchgoers Elf. It's just that some of 'em don't practise what they preach."

Kurt simply nodded before kneeling to pray. When he'd finished he realised that Piotr and Natasha, both raised as atheists, were also praying. Clint was sat on a pew, staring at nothing.

"_Lass __uns__gehen__._"

They spent the rest of their stay in London learning German and Russian every day until they were practically fluent. Logan's SHIELD-issued phone rang on their fourteenth day. (They measured things by weeks and days. None of them dared plan months.)

"Uh-uh. Yes sir. I understand sir. Got it."

He hung up.

"Fury?" asked Natasha.

"Yeah. He wants us back on the Helicarrier in four hours. The jet's already on the way. What ya haven't packed when they get here ya leave."

Back on the Helicarrier the more experienced members of Alpha Strike were quietly excited to see their charges back with a higher level of trust than before.

Phil studied them. "You all look good. You've got another training mission in three weeks."

"Oh joy."

"Shut up Barton."


	5. Daily Grind

"HANDS UP!" shouted Danny exasperatedly.

He'd been training the teens for three hours and Barton still hadn't quite worked out that he had to keep his hands up. Danny ran a hand through his hair. He was an inch taller than Hawkeye and more experienced. And still the kid didn't listen.

"Sorry." said Barton quietly so the others wouldn't hear.

Danny gave him a small smile as a sudden idea came to his head.

"Barton, use all of the gym to attack and defend from me."

Logan stopped what he was doing to watch. At Rand's order the four of them retreated to the observation area. Fury, Coulson and Drew were there. Sitwell and Hill were on a mission somewhere.

"Hi Nicky." said Logan, flashing the bald man a fanged grin.

Nick rolled his eye at the oldest mutant before turning to look at the fight. He still wasn't sure about Barton, no matter how much Howlett liked him. (He did not like Howlett nor did his opinion matter. At all. Nu-uh. Nick couldn't care less.)

"I thought you were fighting." he called.

Danny grinned before whipping a leg to catch Clint's head. Clint backflipped, shinned up the monkey bars, and ran along the top of them lightly. Danny shook the bars to dislodge the archer. Clint jumped clear, landing six foot away from his instructor. His hands snapped up to his face as his keen eyes watched the older man. Danny sprang forward, expecting Clint to dodge away. Instead the mutant smashed his head into Danny, breaking his nose.

"Shit…" muttered Logan.

Danny whipped a leg out to knock Clint to the ground. That worked. But then he made a mistake. He made as if he was going to stomp on Clint's head. Clint grabbed his leg and used it to pull himself up. Danny teetered before regaining his balance and punching Clint in the stomach. The teen grabbed the arm as it swung back before he twisted it and dislocated it. Danny kicked Clint's ribs before Clint swept his legs out from under him and got his hands around his neck. One movement would break Danny's neck.

"Give!"

Clint let go and got to his feet. His stomach and ribs hurt like a bitch and his head was throbbing from where he'd headbutted his instructor.

"Nice one." wheezed Danny as Jessica helped him put his arm back in the socket.

Fury was more interested in the kid's eyes. They'd turned to yellow as he'd jumped off the bars and were slowly turning back to their natural stormy-blue.

"Why were they yellow?" he demanded bluntly.

Clint explained as he grabbed his bottle. "I have a split personality, like Logan. Only, he just has himself and Wolverine. I have me, Hawkeye and Ronin."

"Want to share?" ground out the director.

Logan looked intrigued and was clearly far too invested in the kid for his own good. Coulson too.

"I… It's hard to explain but I think of it like this. I have three minds. One belongs to Clint Barton. He operates purely off logic and has to make calculations to make the more difficult shots. He also doesn't understand the emotions people give off and with shielded people, no pun intended, he can't make them out. That would be the more experienced agents like Hill, Drew, Rand, Coulson, Sitwell and you sir. He also only has normal human strength no matter how hard I workout. He also doesn't fight. Clint Barton is your sniper."

Here he broke off to swig down half a bottle of water. He rubbed his head and sat down. Despite himself, Phil was pleased he was finding out more about his recruit. A special bond was already slowly (very slowly) forming between the teens and the ones who'd recruited them. Even Fury and Logan had fallen into that particular trap.

"Hawkeye?" asked Natasha.

Clint took a deep breath. "He's the hawk, the animal side. He runs on emotions and nothing else. I'm not sayin' he's dumb but logic doesn't enter his field of vision. He's got the best eyesight. When I transform he absorbs the knife at my side. Eventually, he develops almost a telepathic connection to the weapons and my body instinctively absorbs them. When I need them though, out they pop. That's how I can carry my bow, quiver, five knives and two throwing stars through airport security. He can fight if he has to but he prefers to stay in the shadows, unobserved. Hawkeye is your eye in the sky, the spy."

Logan listened as he stretched out one leg. He'd already admitted to his split personality and hearing that the other Feral also had that was a pretty damn good feeling.

"That leaves Ronin. I didn't choose that name, he did. It means 'Masterless Samurai'. It kinda fits 'cos he doesn't follow orders unless he believes you deserve his loyalty. So that's Clint and Hawkeye out. He's like a mash-up of both of them with all their faults and more besides. He'll look at the big picture, use logic. But if someone he cares for is in danger, you'd better run because he will use logic and emotion to get them. He's human form by the way. He uses knives and swords to fight, hates guns, but loves his bow. He can fight bare-handed and win against a man with a machine gun. He uses his wings to cut men's throats because he gets a kick outta it. Ronin is your soldier, your assassin."

"Who's normally in control?" asked Drew.

"Clint. But when I jumped off the monkey bars… Ronin told him that he had no intention of gettin' his ass kicked in a fight _again_ and he wanted to fight this Iron Fist, see how he measured up."

Danny laughed. "I like all three."

Clint smiled slightly. "Yeah. Me too."

No more was said about Clint and Logan's personalities and for that they were both thankful. The team spent their three weeks going over mission strategies with Phil, hand-to-hand with Danny as well as basic weapon training, computer skills with Jasper, honing their powers with Jessica, normal school lessons with Maria which was nothing new. But a new addition was made. Fury announced he would be aiding their training. So they all pitched up at nine sharp.

"Hello. I don't normally take an interest in recruit training; in fact I've only trained five agents personally. But…You are all special cases."

"What will we be learning?" asked Piotr.

"Languages. I know you've been brushing up on your German and Russian but I want to know what other languages you can speak and how well. Once I've established how much you know no English will be spoken in this room unless I say. You don't know a word; you get the answer in another language."

"So," asked Clint, "if we ask what _idiomas_ means in English someone else would answer _langues_in French?"

"Yes."

"OK."

Fury smirked. "I also expect you to practise outside of this room. Howlett, how many do you know?"

"How well?"

"I could drop you in that country and you wouldn't miss a beat."

Logan frowned and answered slowly, "French, Feral and Russian. Oh, and English."

"No smart-ass answers, although two is impressive. Feral does not count because only Ferals can speak it. Russian, where did you learn that?"

"School. A friend was Russian as well."

"Noted. Ones you can just get by with."

"Japanese, Korean, Mandarin and Cantonese. Oh and German. Danke Elf."

"Five's not bad. Where from?"

"My girlfriend was half-Japanese. She taught me most of what I know."

"Ones you can ask where the bathroom is."

Logan narrowed his eyes as he thought. "Thai."

Fury nodded. He was very impressed by the leader's linguistic skills. They needed all the languages they could to succeed in this line of work.

"Alright, we'll work on that. Rasputin, how many fluent?"

"Russian and English. I can get by with German and Arabic and I can ask for the toilet in Dutch."

"Wide range." said Fury.

Piotr inclined his head and leaned back in his chair.

"Wagner?"

"I can speak German and English fluently. I can use Norvegian and Svedish quite well and a little Finnish."

"Interesting. Romanoff?"

"Fluent Russian and English. I can get by quite well with Khmer and German and I'm just coping with a few Hebrew words."

"I see. Barton."

Clint shrugged. "It's a shame Feral doesn't count."

"Well it doesn't."

"In that case English, French and Spanish. I'm not too bad at Russian, German and Italian and I'm still battlin' Portuguese."

Fury nodded. The lesson lasted for two hours and during that time those who didn't have a fluent grasp of Russian and German quickly developed one. Piotr, Natasha, Logan and Kurt all knew at least one language fluently while Clint was struggling. He shared one language with someone that he was fluent in and Logan or Fury frequently had to explain odd words that tripped him up.

"Мы закончили." said Fury. _We are finished._

"Gut." replied Kurt. _Good._

They dragged themselves out of the office and towards the canteen.

"Is it just me then, who's already exhausted after our language feast?" asked Clint.

"No."

"Nyet."

"Nein."

"Nope."

Fury sighed as he sat in his office late that night. He knew he'd fallen into the trap he'd so cleverly avoided for so many years. He'd become emotionally attached to all five of the mutant teenagers in the space of three months. That was not good.


	6. Life on the Helicarrier

Alpha Strike found and secured a safe house precisely three minutes into their exercise. Then they scanned the faces of their targets and began to plan. They were working with possibly a hundred SHIELD people in order to make it seem like a more realistic exercise.

"It says one will be attending a charity ball at 2100 hours tonight." Black Widow remarked.

Wolverine dragged the map closer to him. "Lots o' high buildings. Hawkeye, that's where I want ya."

Hawkeye nodded slowly. "That's good but I need somebody on the ground to tell me when he's comin' out."

"Colossus, congrats. Ya just became the new security guard. There's one here who matches your height and colourin'. Take him out before the ball at 2000 hours. Tell Hawkeye when he's comin' out. Got it?"

"Da босс."

Wolverine smirked at the word before focusing back on the problem at hand.

"Nightcrawler, I want ya doin' surveillance on the cop shop, let us know if they come out ta play."

"Ja. Zey vill not get past me."

"Widow, we're takin' out the second target. He's in a safehouse, holed up. Our aim is ta complete the jobs in… five hours."

Hawkeye whistled through his teeth. "That's tough. Is that extraction as well?"

"Yeah."

They got to their feet and began to move. Soon there would be no evidence of their presence at all. The maps were bundled into pockets and the weapons carefully strapped in. Colossus disappeared to track down the security guard and Hawkeye clambered up the fire escape. The bow was stuck in his quiver with his new paint-tipped collapsible arrows. He moved across the roof swiftly, leaping impossible gaps. He was at the ball in half an hour. Hawkeye pulled his bow out and strung an arrow on the string. Now all he had to do was wait.

"Hawkeye in position."

"Got it." growled Wolverine.

Nightcrawler teleported away to three blocks away from the police station. He was always given a heavy coat to wear that covered his face and tail. Hawkeye had been given a harness to strap his wings to his back when on the job or in a no powers sparring match. Nightcrawler walked to a shadowed alleyway with his hand on his knife. The SHIELD agents didn't know where they were but they were on high alert. After a few minutes the 'cops' tossed a 'drunk' out onto the pavement.

"Go sober up!"

The drunk staggered along until he began to walk past the alley where Nightcrawler was hidden. He paused, turned and opened his mouth.

"Hey-!"

He was cut off by Nightcrawler covering his mouth with one hand, spinning him round with his tail and applying pressure with his other hand to the man's neck. He fell unconscious after a brief struggle. Nightcrawler then dragged the man into the alleyway and dumped him in a dumpster.

"Nightcrawler in position."

"Any trouble?" asked Black Widow.

"Ja. Zey threw a drunk out. He saw me but I… _beseitigt_... erm... "

"Killed." supplied Wolverine.

"Ja."

Wolverine and Black Widow crept through the streets to the flat where their target was lurking. Wolverine deftly picked the lock to the entrance and slipped through. Widow swiftly climbed up the fire escape to the floor the target was on.

"Are you there?" she asked.

"Yeah. On the count of three, one, two… three!"

Wolverine kicked the door down and dodged the bullet. Widow sprang in from the window and grabbed the gun. A swift roundhouse kick to the man's private area followed up with a headbutt from Wolverine knocked the man out.

"We're finished."

Colossus' thick accent filtered in. "The target leaves. He had an argument with a woman who slapped him."

Hawkeye aimed his bow carefully. The man stepped out and he released the arrow. IT hit the man in the temple. He winced but sank to the ground. Colossus hurriedly shouted something and pointed in the wrong direction. He summoned another security guard and the two of them began to run off.

"The police!"

"Hawkeye! Get Colossus and take him the meet! Nightcrawler, get me and Widow!"

Hawkeye slung his bow on his back and transformed into a hawk. He then flew above the 'city' looking for his friend. He saw the security guard lying unconscious and two other guards with bright paint spatters. Hawkeye swooped and grabbed the Russian before the two of them flew back to the car where Coulson was waiting.

"Not bad. The next one's for real."

They drove back in the car and animatedly explained everything to Coulson.

"Hey Phil, SHIELD can't have that many agents to spare."

"You're right. We borrowed from the Army, CIA, FBI, NCIS and Marines. You're our star team. We needed to make sure you could handle as close to the real thing as we could get without an actual city."

Back at the Helicarrier there was a small celebration before the agents were put back to work. This time each of them was given a different language to learn. They then had a private two-hour lesson with Fury on their language.

After one such lesson Clint headed over to the observatory to watch the sky. Already sat there was Logan. He grinned absently over at the younger boy before turning his attention back to the sky.

"Whatcha learnin'?" asked Logan casually as Clint made himself comfortable.

"Portuguese. You?"

"Thai. Nick wants us perfect on the languages we already have."

"Nick?"

"Phil?"

The two of them grinned at each other. Clint lay flat on his back and stared up as the sky began to darken.

"Will you be scared?" asked Clint.

"Ya want the truth?"

"From you? Always."

Logan heaved a sigh. "Just thinkin' about it makes me want ta wet myself."

Natasha watched them from the doorway. They were all terrified of their first mission. Logan, the oldest, was only eighteen and she was fifteen. They were too young really.

"What does a gay horse eat?" asked Clint suddenly.

"No idea."

"Hay!" said Clint, with a camp hand gesture.

Logan groaned. "That's…."

"Amazin'? Brilliant? Side-splittin'?"

"I was thinkin' appallin', terrible, cringeworthy." replied Logan.

Clint laughed. Natasha smiled slightly. Some of Clint's jokes were awful but others were actually funny. She liked Clint, more maybe than all the others. But he talked more to Logan and only spared her an occasional glance or smile. She spent most of her spare time with Piotr and Kurt.

"Hey guys." she said.

Clint lifted his head. "Hey. Wanna hear a joke?"

"One of yours? No thanks."

Logan snorted as she sat, cross-legged, next to Clint's head.

"Is zis a private stargazing?" asked Kurt as he and Piotr walked in.

"Yup. Alpha Strike Team members only."

Piotr pushed the door shut as he ambled into the room.

"What's that star?" asked Natasha.

"Orion." said Clint. "Can you see the three stars? They're his belt."

Clint deliberately ignored how close he was to Natasha. He liked her a lot. And Logan knew. And that wound Clint up.

"I am wondering where our mission will be."

"Somewhere at least one of us can talk the language." said Clint.

He was officially bored of mission talk now. He then demonstrated this by curling into Logan's side and falling asleep. Logan rolled his eyes at the others before closing his own eyes.

"Natalia, you can sleep here." said Piotr quietly, so he didn't wake the two Ferals.

He watched as the smaller girl scrambled over to lie next to him. Kurt curled up on her other side. Piotr had a brief flashback to the times when he, Mikhail, and Illyana would curl up on one bed and fall asleep that way. He smiled slightly as he closed his eyes. Mikhail and Illyana were lost to him now but Alpha Strike wasn't.

That was how Phil found them the next morning. He beckoned Fury and Maria to the door and pointed. A ghost of a smile appeared on Maria's face and Fury's scowl lessened.

"They've got a mission tomorrow." said Fury. "Leave 'em until they wake up."

"Yes sir." said Phil.

When the teens woke up they were dragged into Fury's office. Phil was sat there, he was their official handler.

"A language class?" asked Logan as he threw himself into a chair and put his feet on the table.

"Feet off the table Howlett. A mission."

That woke the five up. They leaned forward to watch Fury click the logo of a green snake and two faces onto the screen by his desk.

"These two men are the leaders of the Emerald Serpent. Strange name I grant you but that's not important. The Emerald Serpent is a human-trafficking ring. They also dabble in drugs, guns and organ harvesting to keep their hand in. They've been responsible for the deaths of over a dozen agents even when the agents were on different missions."

Piotr ran a hand through his hair. "So we have to kill those two men?"

"Not just them. They run a tight ship, at a rough guess I'd say there were only fifty in the whole organisation. Your mission, whether or not you want to accept it, is to wipe out their entire group."

"How can we do that? If they're as multi-national as you say they'll be all over the world."

"Not quite." said Phil. "Intel shows that the top men stick together. They like to check their sites every so often. We know that they have a meeting with La Grenouille to buy arms from him. They'll be travelling in a convoy from Johannesburg."

"South Africa?" asked Natasha.

Fury nodded and clicked again. A satellite image came up, showing a long stretch of empty road.

"At 1500 hours, local time on Saturday a convoy of two armoured cars and a truck with an open back will drive down here. They will aim to travel perhaps, fifty miles before they park and meet another armoured car. They have no intention of killing La Grenouille because he's a good person to do business with."

"Aim to?" asked Logan.

Fury smiled. "Yes. You five will take them out."

"How?"

"Work it out."

They were given maps and weapons.

"If you pull this mission off… you will become official agents. And that means harder training."

Logan nodded. "Then we'd better pull it off."


	7. Johannesburg

Logan kicked Piotr and Kurt awake, shook Natasha and muttered in Clint's ear. There were a few groans but they stumbled out of the plane.

"Alright, there's a safe house somewhere. Got the map?" asked Logan.

Kurt held it up. The techs had provided him with an image inducer. It looked like a watch and allowed him to change his appearance. They were very proud.

"Ve need to go. Should I help?"

"Yeah."

Kurt teleported them to their SHIELD safehouse. It had two bunk beds and a single, a skylight and a fire escape. There was also a table and a cooker.

"Cosy." remarked Logan.

"I've seen worse." said Clint as he dumped his duffel bag.

The maps were spread out on the table and Clint was dispatched to the kitchen to make something to eat. He was the only one that could actually cook. He sat back down.

"It'll only take a few minutes."

"Good. I am _hungrig_." laughed Kurt.

Clint rolled his eyes and looked down at the map. Logan had produced a marker pen to annotate the map.

"So this is the route the convoy is on," here he drew a long line, "and here is where they meet the Frog." That was a large X. "Where do ya reckon the Frog's people would hear gunfire from?"

"Anywhere." replied Piotr. "It is a quiet stretch of land and gunfire travels."

Logan ran a hand over his face. "OK, Fury said we're allowed ta take out the Frogs. So they'll appear and we'll take them out as well. Hawkeye, I want ya in a tree. Ya watchin' our backs when the Frogs turn up. Is that supposed to be burnin'?"

Clint shot off to deal with the food. They ate and didn't speak for the rest of the night. Clint took first watch and pulled himself up onto the roof with his bow and a Beretta to keep him company.

The next morning the Alpha Strike team were ready to go. They were dressed in Kevlar, even the bulletproof ones. Piotr's uniform was designed to stretch for when he transformed. The plan was for Clint to snipe the two main men from a tree and the close-combat fighters were to take over as the others realised where he was. Clint was then on look out, in case one was overwhelmed and for when the Frogs turned up.

"Alright, let's move. Nightcrawler, get us there."

Nightcrawler teleported them all to the chosen spot. Hawkeye flew up the tree and concealed himself in the branches. From below he couldn't be seen. Wolverine and Nightcrawler ducked into the bush as they watched. Wolverine drew out his two guns, his gifts from Fury.

"Where did you get zem?!" hissed Nightcrawler.

"Fury. They got a hell o' a kick."

Colossus glanced at Black Widow as she snapped her bracelets on. Her mutation allowed her to change bullets hitting her skin into static. The bracelets helped her focus it.

"This is going to be interesting comrade." he said with a grin.

Hawkeye's voice filtered through the comm. "We've got three vehicles approachin'. On my count, one, two… three!"

The first thing Klaus Sofes knew about his assassination was an arrow through his throat. He gurgled and died. His bodyguards shouted through to the truck and other car. They pulled out their handguns and automatics. But then they heard a window smash and heard their counterparts shout over the radio that their other leader had an arrow through his eye.

"We are under attack!" screamed one.

"Go!" shouted Wolverine.

Hawkeye watched them charge out and grinned. A… soldier for want of a better word had fired a shot into his tree. It had missed though.

"Bastard!" shouted a South African as Colossus broke his nose then his neck.

He was in metal form and enjoying himself. Wolverine had just stabbed someone. Colossus saw three men converging on Black Widow. He lifted his gun and put a bullet through their skulls. Then he found himself facing two men. Colossus used the butt of his gun to smash down across one man's face while punching another. He kicked another one in the groin and shot them all at point-blank.

"The French cometh." said Hawkeye easily. "Stand away from the vehicles if you aren't blast-proof."

Either Widow didn't hear or didn't register because just as the arrow pierced the gas tank she danced within range. Hawkeye's heart stopped when he saw her blasted into the air. After the brief fight Wolverine ordered Nightcrawler to take her straight back to the safe house while they informed Coulson.

"I'll go with her." said Hawkeye. "Someone needs to stand guard and Nightcrawler has to get you around."

"Go on then."

Nightcrawler took them to the safehouse and left them there. Hawkeye gently placed her on the bed and took her weapons off. Then he waited for her to wake up.

"Wha- where am I?" she asked the minute her eyes opened.

"Safehouse."

"Oh."

Black Widow pushed herself up as she blinked to clear her vision. Hawkeye was sat on the bunk bed, scowling down at her.

"Where's everybody else?"

"Contactin' base."

Black Widow frowned as she focussed on his face. Hawkeye was definitely pissed off about something.

"What is wrong?"

Up until then Hawkeye had been doing a brilliant job of keeping his temper. Then he exploded.

"Goddammit Nat! I gave you an order! I told you to stay away from the truck unless you were blastproof! And you aren't! You were blown up! You could have died and _I_ would have killed you!"

Her mouth was hanging open in shock as she looked at him. Then he couldn't help himself. He jumped off the bunk bed, moved across the room and kissed her.

"Christ Nat," whispered Clint when they broke apart, "what are you tryin' to do to me?"

Natasha smiled up at him. "I don't know ястреб. What am I trying to do?"

He sat on the bed, careful to avoid actually sitting on her. (His track record wasn't great. He'd walked into Piotr once.) Natasha winced slightly as she moved to give him more room.

"Lie down Nat. You'll have to go to the medical wing when we get back."

"No I will not."

Clint gave her a sharp look. "Just to give you some painkillers and because Phil and Jess will chew us all out if you don't."

"On one condition."

Clint smiled. "What?"

Natasha smirked. "You give me another kiss."

Just as Clint was obliging there was a _bamf!_ and the other three appeared. The two whipped apart. But there was a smirk on all three faces.

"Shut up." said Clint as he got to his feet.

"Pack up. Oh, Hawkeye, since ya and Nat are so close ya can look after her."

Clint flipped the bird at him before smirking. Logan laughed. The weapons were packed by the time the helicopter arrived.

"Hawk! I'll take ya bow if ya wanna help Nat."

"Danke!" called the archer.

Piotr opened the skylight and helped Logan take the weapons out. Kurt was wiping the place down and Clint was trying to not fall over.

"Alpha Strike, are you ready to leave?" asked their pilot.

"Hey Ben." said Logan easily as he put the last shotgun into the helicopter. "No Quinjet?"

"Nowhere to land it."

The five teens piled on and Ben took off. By the time they'd arrived at the Helicarrier it was all over the news that an arms dealer and his people had been shot to death on the road out of Johannesburg. Nobody connected it to the five teenagers who'd arrived in a room and left the next day.


	8. Hospital

Logan jumped off the jet first. After South Africa he'd led his team of teens through five more missions, all equally life-threatening and hair-raising. He heard Clint swear behind him.

"Problem?"

"I fell off a goddamn building." muttered the younger boy.

Logan just grinned. The mission was in a Portuguese-speaking country and Clint was the only one that spoke Portuguese. So his wings had to be hidden and when he'd lost his balance on a rooftop chase there'd been no way of regaining it. Natasha shot Logan a sharp look as she helped her boyfriend off the jet.

"Alright, alright. Sorry Hawk. Pete, help him out."

The five of them walked through the Helicarrier to the Bridge. Jasper was tapping away into a computer when he glanced up. He suppressed a smile as he watched agents who'd been there longer than the Alpha Strike Team draw back, out of their way. A quick pang of concern filled him when he saw the weariness on Piotr's face.

"Good mission?" called Jasper.

"Da." rumbled Piotr.

Fury turned and watched them walk over to the meeting table as well. Logan nodded to him before pulling a chair out for Clint. The archer sat in it carefully and glanced down at his leg.

"Barton, go see the medics." sighed Fury.

"Kurt, take him." ordered Logan. "Don't argue."

The last order was directed at Clint who had a tendency to bitch like a little girl. Clint grunted and allowed Kurt to teleport him away. Piotr, Natasha and Logan ran over the mission with Fury.

"Mind if we get some sleep now?" asked Logan.

He was the only agent that was allowed to openly challenge the Director. Fury looked at him out of his single eye and smirked.

"Go ahead. Oh, Howlett, I want to see you in my office."

"Yes Director, no Director, three bags full Director." replied Logan snippily.

Natasha and Piotr left quickly to shower and change. Fury walked with the nineteen-year-old to his office.

"You still have the guns I gave you?" he asked as he pushed the door open.

"Yep. They're great guns. Can't remember if I said thanks."

"You did."

Logan sat himself down and rested his feet on Nick's desk. Nick didn't yell at him or glare at him. Instead he handed over two boxes. Logan opened them to see rows and rows of bullets.

"More ammo? I can get some from the armoury any day."

"These are special bullets. Explosive and tranquilisers. Just in case."

"Thanks."

Nick smiled at him. He'd never tell a soul but he'd created the weaponry himself.

"Go and get yourself cleaned up kid. You look like hell."

Logan's mouth curved into a grin. "Thanks. How long do we have off now?"

"Two weeks."

He nodded and left. Nick sighed as he watched him go. Rule Number One was never get attached to an agent, romantically or otherwise. Especially not to a volatile nineteen-year-old Canadian mutant with control issues.

"Nick…" Logan began hesitantly.

"What?"

Logan scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "What's happenin' at Christmas?"

"Christmas?"

Nick was inwardly rolling his eye. They were still teenagers even if Logan had only turned nineteen two weeks ago. (He was never allowed a party on the Helicarrier again.)

"What do you want to happen?"

Logan said very quickly, "I was wonderin' if ya were doin' anythin'."

"Don't you want to stick with your friends?" At the look on Logan's face Nick knew what was coming next. "No! You are not all coming to stay at my house!"

Logan had put on his pleading puppy-dog look. "They won't be! Clint and Nat are spendin' the holiday at Phil's; Piotr and Kurt are goin' ta Danny's! I'm the only one with nowhere ta go!"

When he looked back on it in future years, Nick Fury decided that his next words were his ultimate doom.

"Fine. You can stay at mine."

"Yay!" shouted Logan as he took off.

Fury hit his head softly against the wall a few times.

_After Christmas…_

Clint showed off his new bow and arrows and grinned. Logan rolled his eyes. He'd had the only happy Christmas of his life. Nick lived in New York and had taken him to Coney Island. He lived to regret letting Logan cook though.

"So you actually broke the stove?!" asked Natasha.

Logan nodded and the others snorted with laughter, imaging the Director's face.

"Yes he did. Trust me, never let Agent Howlett cook."

Phil and Fury had appeared. "You have another mission. Infiltrate this base."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::

When Clint and Piotr woke up in the hospital the first people they asked for were their teammates, Phil and Nick. They'd been out a month but Piotr could swear there'd been a thousand changes. For one thing Logan had started calling Fury 'Dad'. Kurt reported that it was only in the presence of Alpha Strike Team members that he did this but Kurt predicted it wouldn't be long before all of SHIELD knew.

"Hey Ястреб." whispered Natasha softly.

Clint didn't respond. He stared at the walls, his eyes wide and panicked.

"I'll deal with it." said Logan.

There was so much authority in his voice that nobody argued. hey all filed out and left Logan with his agent.

"What's wrong kid?"

Clint said in a small, terrified voice, "My father put me in the hospital. Then Barney did. I don't like hospitals."

"OK." Logan murmured soothingly. "That's OK Hawk. We'll get ya in another room, supervised. Ya do whatever ya told by whoever's lookin' after ya."

"Can it be Tasha?"

"I'll ask."

Clint smiled a small smile. Logan quickly relayed the request. Fury approved it and Natasha tried not to grin. A lot of swearing and three swift kicks to a medic's stomach later Clint was installed in Natasha's room. Piotr was under Phil's care as Phil was their handler.

"Hey Nat…"

"Go to sleep Clint." replied Natasha. "I have to fill in this report for Phil."

"OK."

With that he was out like a light. Until his nightmare struck. The first thing Natasha knew about it was a scream from her bed. Whirling round she saw Clint thrashing wildly. That is, until she pinned him on the bed.

"ястреб! It's me!" she shouted.

Eventually his yellow eyes turned back into blue as he looked up at her. Natasha rolled off him and onto the bed.

"This reminds me of South Africa." she laughed.

Clint replied shakily, "I was thinking Morocco."

Instead of bickering over which mission it fit the best she kissed him gently. Natasha had been there when Clint had nightmares before. He needed physical human contact to get back to normal. And she never felt second-best or put-out when he ran to Logan instead of her. Logan was bigger and stronger and he radiated more heat. That was what Clint ran to. The person he trusted, the person who was the most solid.

Clint seemed to sense her thoughts. "I love you baby."

"Baby?"

"What's wrong with baby?" he asked.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "I would prefer something else."

"Red?"

"No."

"Sweetie? OW!"

"No."

Clint nuzzled her neck. "Gimme a lil' time to think on it. When's the next mission?"

The boy was unstoppable. "When you're well."

"Spoilsport."


	9. Meet Wanda

Wanda hurried after Director Fury into the workshop. Apparently her new team were working on various inventions.

"Ze agents create zeir own veapons?"

"No. Just these. Alpha Strike is our best and brightest team. Why do you think we put you in it?"

"Zey are mutants, like me?"

"Yes. Oh, and don't take offence at whatever comments they come out with. They don't mean anything."

"_Wunderbar_." muttered Wanda.

Either Director Fury didn't hear her or, more likely, ignored her. The door to the workshop swung open and Wanda's jaw dropped. There were five people in there, working away. A blond-haired boy was hunched over an arrow, muttering to himself about payloads and trajectories. A girl about Wanda's age with red hair and green eyes was studying some bracelets. A blue boy and two huge boys that looked more like full-grown men were working on something that looked like a snowmobile.

"Agents. Making any progress?"

The four boys and girl scrambled to their feet when they saw Director Fury. Wanda spotted the curious looks before the eyes flicked back to the Director.

"Some. Nat's worked out how to sustain an electric shock with the Bite and we're close to makin' this thing fly." said the man-boy with twin peaks in his hair.

"Clint?" asked Director Fury.

All eyes turned to the blond boy who had long since lost interest in the conversation. After the word 'Agents' he gone straight back to his arrow.

"Hawk's fine. Livin' in a world of his own but he's havin' fun."

"Get him out of it. He needs to meet the newest team member."

It was obvious the Alpha Strike Team had already been briefed on this. The main man-boy walked over to the blond boy and took the arrow out of his hands.

"I need that!"

"Ya can have it back when ya've met the newest team member."

The blond boy scowled but lifted his head and flashed Wanda a quick grin.

"Now that we're all listening. This is Wanda Maximoff, codenamed Scarlet Witch. She's a reality-warper and only eighteen so be nice. Oh, Logan, that reminds me. Jasper seems to think that you've missed the last two computer sessions."

"I was busy." replied the main man-boy. "Now shoo. We have work ta do and new teammates to meet. Go and do what ya do best."

"We all know who he does best." snickered the blond boy.

Wanda wondered what the Director would do to the blond boy for his cheek. All he got was a dirty look and a dig off the other girl.

"Make sure he doesn't blow the lab."

The second man-boy and the blue boy laughed. Director Fury rolled his eye, nodded to Wanda and left. The blond boy returned to his work. Wanda looked around nervously.

"I'm Logan Howlett. Codenamed Wolverine. I'm the leader of Alpha Strike. I can do this as well." He showed his claws and healing powers before continuing, "Nick said that we'd be trainin' ya in our areas of… Elf, what did he call it?"

"Expertise."

"Yeah that. So I'm hand-to-hand. It would be Agent Rand but we just got a crop o' new recruits that need bones breakin' so it's up ta me."

He smiled as he said it, helping Wanda relax a little. Logan glanced over to the blond boy who was still muttering under his breath.

Logan heaved a melodramatic sigh. "That is Clint Barton aka Hawkeye o' Ronin dependin' on what mood he's in. I'll fill ya in on that later. He can turn into a hawk. He's our team sniper and weapons guy so he'll be familiarisin' ya with the various weapons ya gonna use."

"I see."

The second man-boy extended his hand. "I am Piotr Rasputin but I also called Peter, Pete and Colossus. Sometimes I am known as Ruskie and you can choose any. I will be your pilot and flight training instructor."

He turned into metal before turning back into his human form and glancing down at the snowmobile.

"I am Kurt Wagner but in the Munich Circus I…"

The other three that were paying attention chorused, "Was known as the Incredible Nightcrawler."

Wanda laughed as Kurt teleported next to her. He grinned and teleported over to a table holding a load of notes.

"I vill teach you how to use ze computers and to hack."

"I'm Natasha Romanoff but I'm codenamed Black Widow. I can climb walls, shoot venom blasts and I have superhuman speed, strength, reflexes and agility. I'll be your spy trainer. How to blend in and things like that."

Wanda smiled at her. "How old are you all, if I am allowed to ask?"

Logan replied, "We're teammates. We have ta know everythin' there is ta know about each other o' we die in the field. I'm twenty-one."

"Twenty." called Piotr.

"Me and Clint are nineteen." called Kurt.

"I'm eighteen. Same as you." added Natasha.

"How long have you been doing zis job?"

Logan glanced up. "Three years. Nat, find Wanda a project. Now that she's here, she can make herself useful."

Wanda walked over to Natasha, wondering what Pietro would think if he could see them. Natasha rustled through several pieces of paper before stopping at one.

"See what you make of this. It's a between missions project, meaning that we haven't had time to look at it properly."

"Do you always make your own veapons?"

"Yes, most of the time. Clint makes the techs cry when they get the arrowheads wrong."

"He makes zem cry?"

"Yes. You'll understand when you meet him properly."

"Zis is to create an exploding watch?"

"Boys and their toys. Kurt likes things that explode."

The two of them smiled at each other and Wanda got the feeling that everything was going to get a little better.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::

"So, you're all clear on your mission?"

"Yeah." drawled Logan.

Wanda took a deep breath. This was her first mission. Apparently it was the others' twentieth. They were attending a ball in Brussels. Wanda and Natasha were posing as Ana and Natalia Magnus, the twin daughters of Klaus Magnus, a wealthy German businessman/arms dealer who was otherwise known as Phil Coulson. They had a bodyguard each, a pair of Russian brothers known as Mikhail and Nikolai Onatopp, Logan and Piotr respectively.

"I vill be outside in ze car, ja?" asked Kurt.

"That's right. The German chauffer, Max Frank, who will be wearing his image inducer."

"Ja, ja."

"And yet I still get to sit up in the cold."

"We need our eye in the sky Barton."

"You are never gonna let me forget that, are you?"

"No."

Clint was going to be crouched above the ballroom in a cold air vent, watching everything. He had to report every movement the two targets made. They were a pair of arms dealers who were going to be meeting Onatopp. They wanted grenades and rocket launchers. They also wanted a night with Onatopp's daughters. Unfortunately they wouldn't live to enjoy it. They just wouldn't live.

"Clint, stop bitchin'. We'll be ready ta go in twenty."

"Good luck."

The Alpha Strike Team left packed and reappeared at the Quinjet. Wanda met Ben Grimm, the only pilot who could actually fly outside of Alpha Strike according to Clint. Grimm ignored him, greeted Wanda and ordered the mutants to sit down, strap in and shut up.

After fifty minutes of flying they arrived in Brussels. Phil showed them into the hotel room. Clint, since he wasn't supposed to be seen was perched on the balcony, in hawk form. Logan, Piotr and Kurt carried the bags up to the rooms. Logan opened the window and let the bird in. Then Clint emerged from a cloud of feathers.

"I sleep in a proper bed tonight."

"You're sharing with Logan."

The team busied themselves getting ready for the mission. Eventually everything was done. Wanda listened silently as Clint and Logan conversed in Feral. Piotr and Natasha were murmuring in Russian and Phil was sleeping. She slipped out onto the balcony. Kurt appeared next to her, wearing his image inducer.

"What's it like?" asked Wanda in German.

"Killing a man?" replied Kurt in the same language. "It's… At first you struggle to understand how you could commit the ultimate sin. Then, the rational part of your mind reminds you what the person did to deserve it. It's hard to have your whole morality questioned over one act."

"Will I be able to forget?"

"Nein. Wanda, you never forget. It will haunt your dreams forever. But… compromised missions, missing your shot will haunt you more. The stain never leaves you. Logan has never forgotten his first kill, eleven years ago."

"That would make him ten?!"

A deep voice rumbled, "Diggin' up the old family history?"

Kurt and Wanda whipped round to see Logan leaning against the door frame with Clint behind him. Clint's eyes had turned to yellow and Wanda worried that he would blow the mission.

"I am sorry Logan."

"Elf, we need to go over the escape plan." said Clint, his voice rough.

Kurt nodded and followed, leaving Logan and Wanda alone on the balcony. Wanda eyed him nervously.

"Who did you kill?"

"My father."

"When you were ten?!"

Logan looked at her. "I lost my temper."

Wanda snapped, "Nein, losing your temper is yelling at Clint in Feral because he did something stupid! Not slaughtering a man!"

"What do ya want me ta say?" asked Logan resignedly. "Fer seven years, when I lost my temper somebody went ta the morgue or hospital. It didn't bother me which. But then Dad-Nick found me and I changed. Suddenly, it began ta matter. The animal didn't control the man, the man controlled the animal. I still get angry but it's for a reason now."

"How did you kill him?"

"Does it matter?"

"I want to know."

"I stabbed him. It was the first time my claws had come out. I stabbed him and it took five minutes for him ta die. Ya don't realise how long five minutes is until ya've seen someone die."

"Why didn't you call an ambulance?"

"Because I wanted him ta die. He'd killed my mother. The only person in the whole world who understood me back then. But I grew up. I evolved to the man I am now. And I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Really?" asked Wanda in disbelief.

"I had a crap life. Then I met these guys and… Piotr is like the voice of reason I never had, Kurt is the conscience I lost, and Nat is the baby sister I let die."

Wanda listened to him quietly. She hadn't realised before just how scarred her team was. Obviously the three years and twenty missions had taken their toll but she didn't know how deep the scars went.

"And Clint?"

"Clint? He's the one person that knows what it's like to be a Feral. He's the only one that understands everythin' about me without me havin' ta explain it."

"I'm sorry I judged you."

Logan turned to go inside. "We all judge. But some o' us work based on our judgements and some don't."

He vanished into the room and Kurt reappeared.

"You and Logan are friends?"

"Yes."

"Gut. Listen, I know you have no totem and everyone else does so I thought I could give you this."

Wanda looked down at the small emerald hanging off a chain.

"An emerald?"

"From the Sonic game Clint and Logan showed me. It is a Chaos Emerald. You use Chaos Magic."

Wanda laughed and hugged him. "Danke schon Kurt."

Kurt smiled at her. Phil sat up and watched the two Germans walk back in. It was true. The entire team had totems that they wore around their necks on missions. Logan had his SHIELD-issued dog tags round his neck, one side engraved 'Wolverine' the other, 'Logan Howlett', his way of remembering that there were two sides to him. Clint had a heavy silver eagle (it was a hawk thank you very much) on a silver chain. Piotr had a yin and yang symbol on the end of black string. Natasha had a small black spider on the end of a thin gold chain. And Kurt had a heavy gold cross on a thick gold chain.

"You should get some sleep. Remember, it's D-Day tomorrow."

"Wouldn't it be M-Day? For Mission?" asked Clint.

"Just go to sleep. Not on the… never mind."

Phil knew he shouldn't say that to the blond teen. He had a habit of going straight to sleep. Logan picked him up, bridal-style, and carried him into the other room.

"No, I'm not Nat. Nat's in the other room. I swear ta God if ya try and kiss me I'll punch ya. Good Hawk."

Wanda glanced at Phil who said, "I don't want to know."

_D-Day… Sorry Clint, M-Day…_

Wanda walked next to Natasha and in front of Logan as they entered the ballroom.

"Damn, you look beautiful Nat. Promise you won't throw the dress away. And Wanda, lookin' sexy. Try not to get seduced by everybody. Pete, you big hunk you. Every rich single girl in this room is gonna be on you like the speed of light. Phil, looking like a badass there. I think a woman's eyein' you up. Oh yeah, you look nice too Logan, especially the hair." babbled Clint over the comm links.

Wolverine growled under his breath. He'd had to shave his hair for this mission and was not happy about it.

"Mr Magnus, good evening." said one of the waiters.

"This way." said Phil, walking over to the arms dealers.

"Klaus! It's wonderful to see you again!" cried Giorgio, the elder one.

"You too, Giorgio. Meet my daughters, Ana and Natalia. These are their bodyguards."

Wolverine gave a curt nod, making sure Antonio, the younger one, could see the gun underneath his jacket. Antonio just smirked. _Wait until later bub. Then we'll see who's laughing._

"Mikhail, get me a drink." snapped Black Widow.

"Yes ma'am."

Hawkeye watched Wolverine weave his way through the crowd and reappear with two glasses of champagne. His eyes scanned everywhere, until he saw Antonio stretching his hand out to pinch Black Widow's bum.

"Wolverine, I hope you saw that."

Wolverine had. He moved forwards but Coulson intervened. Black Widow pretended to give Wolverine a desperate look and Wolverine stood closer to her.

"Coulson, promise I can personally put an arrow through that guy's eye."

Coulson inclined his head very slightly and Hawkeye smirked. That man was going to pay. He could feel Ronin shifting in the back of his mind. The ball dragged on and Hawkeye watched jealously as Antonio danced with Black Widow.

"Dance with me." said Giorgio.

Scarlet Witch nodded and danced around the floor with him. Meanwhile she was imagining it was somebody else. Eventually the party began to wind down.

"Why don't you come back to my room?"

"I… My father…"

"Your father gave me permission." he whispered. "In fact, he insisted."

"Alright then. Let's go."

Giorgio smirked to himself as he led her to his room. She was probably terrified and unsure what she had to do. He'd show her. He shut the door and turned to her.

"So, what's underneath that pretty dress?"

"Typical Italian." sneered Ana as she punched him in the throat.

He roared in anger and moved to hit her back. Before he could she'd pushed him into the door and backed away. So he drew his own gun. Then the bodyguard entered, knocking the gun out of Giorgio's hand, grabbed him round the throat and began to push his thumbs in. Giorgio gagged and coughed. He was drowning in his own blood.

"Your… father…"

Ana ignored him. "What took you so long?"

"A waiter was more curious than he ought to have been. The one Hawkeye noted."

"Ah."

The name Hawkeye rang a bell in Giorgio's mind. Hawkeye was one of the squad suspected to have destroyed the Emerald Serpent. If they were on his team… they were professionals, he'd been played and now he was going to die. Those were his last coherent thoughts before his eyes rolled up into his head and the world went black.

"He is dead. Hurry." said Colossus, helping Scarlet Witch onto the window ledge.

Nightcrawler was waiting in the limousine. He grinned when he saw Colossus and Scarlet Witch climbing down the drainpipe. Nightcrawler had cleared the rooms of their stuff while the others were at the ball. Scarlet Witch climbed into the back while Colossus sat in the front seat.

"Zat vas fast." said Nightcrawler.

Hawkeye watched Black Widow follow Antonio out of the ballroom. Coulson excused himself and summoned Wolverine. The two of them began to walk out of the room. Hawkeye slipped through the air vents, arriving at Antonio's room and his heart stopped. Antonio was better trained than his brother. He'd thrown Black Widow onto the bed and was starting to pull her dress off. So Hawkeye opened the air vent, jumped down and rolled off the bed with Antonio.

"Who the hell are you?!" snarled Antonio.

The boy glared back at him. "I'm your killer. The name's Hawkeye."

Antonio lunged forwards as Hawkeye shot him in the eye with an arrow. He smirked as the man fell to the floor and then he grabbed Black Widow.

"Job's done."

Hawkeye helped Black Widow over to the window. They jumped down and crawled into the back of the limo. Coulson, Wolverine, Colossus, Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler were already there.

Phil took in Natasha's ripped dress and the murderous expression on Clint's face and asked, "What happened?"

Clint snarled out, "We got bullshitted on the intel sir."

Logan looked over. Clint only ever called somebody 'sir' or 'ma'am' when he was angry. Very angry.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you didn't tell us Antonio was trained. Seriously trained. He shouldn't have been able to…"

"To pin me." said Natasha quietly.

_Oh shit_ thought Logan. Fury was going to get hell over this.


	10. Alkali Lake

**Warning: Slightly graphic mentions of torture.**

Logan swore under his breath as he crept nearer the facility. They were on a mission, infiltrating an Army base at Alkali Lake. It wasn't any old Army base though. It was being run by a man named Stryker, Colonel William Stryker. And he was experimenting on mutants, against their will. So Fury had sent the Alpha Strike Team to deal with him. Hawkeye was up on a ledge on the side of the mountain, observing the guards' movements and swearing all the while. Colossus and Black Widow were methodically taking out the guards on one side with Wolverine, Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch on the other.

"Holy crap is it cold. Are we in America or Canada by the way? Oh, Colossus, on your six."

Colossus turned and smashed his fist into the guard that was creeping closer. Black Widow smirked at him and he grinned back before taking the ammunition from the guard's body.

"Wolverine, you've got about ten making their way over. Shit. They've got tranquilising guns by the look of it. Holy shit!" yelped Hawkeye as he watched the darts enter his friends' bodies.

All three slumped and it wasn't long before Hawkeye was swearing at the guards taking Black Widow and Colossus away. Then he heard footsteps. As he prepared to jump he felt something enter the back of his neck and he crumpled to the floor.

"Sir, we've got him."

"Good. Bring him in along with the others."

"Yes sir."

Colossus opened his eyes to see two guards pointing machine guns at him. He was strapped to a chair and as he started to test their strength behind his back a man walked in. He was balding, with a belly that stuck out in front of him, glasses and mean, beady eyes.

"There's no point struggling you know. Those bonds are unbreakable. If you attempt to turn into steel they will simply cut into your wrists, causing you unimaginable pain and you will not be able to transform. I say unimaginable. After a few hours, you'll understand what I mean. You can save yourself all that though, if you tell me what you were doing here."

Colossus smirked. "I wanted to sleep with your wife."

One guard slammed the butt of his machine gun into Colossus' stomach, winding him.

"Russian eh? With a smart mouth. We don't like people with smart mouths round here."

"Does that explain why you are all so stupid?"

While Colossus was being beaten Nightcrawler was attempting to move. He'd been chained to the ground. Then the same man walked in.

"Are you going to talk? Or are you going to be like your Russian comrade and die before you speak?"

Nightcrawler bared his fangs in response.

"I see. Well, we'll have to whip the demon out of you."

"I am not ze one bound for Hell Colonel."

Stryker laughed and Nightcrawler narrowed his eyes.

"I'm making the world a better place by getting rid of you people."

Nightcrawler smirked. "Vell, ve shall see whose soul the Devil vants on Judgement Day."

Stryker nodded to the man stood next to him who produced a bull whip.

Black Widow opened her eyes to see Scarlet Witch tied to another chair. The door swung open and a man walked in, flanked by three others.

"Tell me why you're here or I may have to unleash this man on you."

This man turned out to be a huge blond man with a sneer on his face. Black Widow narrowed her eyes. A mutant.

"You keep unusual company for a man who hates mutants."

"Shut it." snarled the man.

The main man, Stryker Scarlet Witch guessed, scowled.

"They serve a purpose. I expect your blood will be interesting."

"Coward." sneered Scarlet Witch.

The blond man slapped her.

"Is that supposed to change my mind? You are all cowards."

"Two Germans and two Russians. An unusual mix. But don't worry; we're going to make you better."

They left, leaving Black Widow and Scarlet Witch to wonder what he meant.

"Are the substances ready?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Take the Russians and Germans to the injection room. Then I want the Canadian in the chamber and the American in the test room."

"Yes sir."

_Thirty minutes later…_

Black Widow opened her eyes to find herself strapped into yet another chair in a different room though Nightcrawler and Colossus were there this time as well as Scarlet Witch. Stryker had appeared with the big blond man and another man who possibly had Korean descent. The more you knew the bigger chance you had of escaping. That was a lesson that Jess had drummed into her head over the three years.

"What do you want, Stryker?"

The colonel narrowed his eyes and drew out a needle.

"This is Banshee. It's a drug made up of Fentanyl, Mutant Growth Hormone, Testosterone and Dopamine. It can enhance mutant powers, bringing about secondary and even tertiary powers. Of course, Banshee hasn't been tested yet. So, that's why I've brought you here. To be my test subjects. So, if you'll prepare the injection sites please."

The medics swarmed around Colossus, Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler. Black Widow strained at her restraints when she saw Colossus swearing in Russian. The needle went in and the liquid was pushed into his veins. His muscles bulged as he thrashed from side to side. Then he went still, deathly still. His head hung down onto his chest.

"Is he dead?" asked Stryker carelessly.

"No. His heart's still beating."

"Good. Inject the other two."

Nightcrawler's tail lashed as it took out a medic's eye. The blond man knocked him out.

"And this, my dear little redheads, is our variation of the Super-Soldier Serum. We're going to see if it works."

Black Widow struggled but it was hard when restrained. The needle sank into her arm and a medic pressed the plunger down. And Black Widow managed not to scream. She swore at them, but she didn't scream. But the pain burned through her, filling her veins. The same was happening to Scarlet Witch.

"Excellent. We'll leave these four here. Let's go and see the other two."

They swept out of the room.

Hawkeye's eyes flew open as he scanned the room. He was strapped to a table with leather restraints. The door swung open and in walked Stryker.

"How are you today? Inject him."

"Don't you fuckin' dare! Piss off!" swore Hawkeye.

The medics glared at him as they tried to put a needle in his eye. They hadn't reckoned on Ronin's self-defence strategy. Hell, Hawkeye hadn't realised it existed. But anyway, his eyes turned yellow and a protective shield formed over them. The medics jabbed at the shield but nothing happened.

"Sir, his eyes seemed to have formed a protective barrier. We can't break it. It's almost like a force field."

"Fine. But make sure his eyesight is sharpened through need."

_Shit_ thought Hawkeye. That sounded bad. Very bad. It was. One medic, a Dr. Rao, grabbed his head, held it still and pushed a needle through his ear drum. Hawkeye swore and thrashed, somehow catching a medic. Then his other ear got the same treatment. He could see Stryker's lips moving but the sound was blocked out by the terrible piercing pain that emanated from his ears. The medics left, leaving Hawkeye alone, strapped to a metal table with blood sliding from his ears into his hairline.

"Here he is."

Wolverine looked around and swore in Feral. He was also strapped to something metal but in his case he was in a tank, underwater. There was a bubbling tank of metallic liquid at the foot of the tank Wolverine was in.

"I see you're awake Wolverine. We looked at your dog tags. Let me explain what's going to happen. This is adamantium, one of the most indestructible metals on the planet. Only vibranium can break it. And what we're going to do is bond it to your skeleton to make you a perfect fighter. Wonderful, isn't it? Begin the process."

Wolverine swallowed as the needles entered his skin. _That wasn't so bad._ Then the adamantium pumped into his bones. White-hot, it wrapped itself around his bones, burning everywhere. After what seemed like eternity, it cooled and Wolverine's body healed itself as quickly as it could. But Wolverine's mind had been taken over by the animal.

"Bring the sniper boy in." ordered Stryker. "Oh, and get behind the glass."

He smirked as he watched Creed, North and Bradley bring the boy in. North hastily undid Wolverine's restraints before retreating. Bradley didn't have time to get into the safe area before Wolverine rose from the tank. Now, Stryker wasn't squeamish but watching what the Feral man did to Bradley turned even his stomach. Then the blood-soaked, butt-naked man turned to face the blond boy with blood over his face.

"If this works we'll have created the perfect killing machine, Weapon X." gloated Stryker.

"Hey buddy. You ain't gonna kill me too are you?" asked the boy.

Stryker's smirk grew as the menacing man stepped forwards.

"Cover your eyes, Dr. Rao. I think this will not be a sight for ladies."

Wolverine stalked towards the other Feral, assessing how much of a threat he presented. _Not much._ He lifted his claws, ready to cut the Cub open, like he had done to that man. But to his surprise the boy wasn't scared or readying himself to fight. He was just looking at Wolverine with total trust in his eyes. Well, that and quite a lot of pain. To his shock, Wolverine found that he didn't want to hurt the boy.

"Hawkeye." grunted Wolverine, still too surprised to comprehend what was happening.

The boy smiled slightly but Wolverine was more concerned with the cuts on the boy's face.

"Reckon we could move now buddy?"

The voice jolted Wolverine into action, allowing the man to take over the animal. They moved through the facility as quickly as they could. Hawkeye was limping.

"What's wrong wi' the leg?"

"We need to find where they took our weapons. Is there blood on my face?"

"Yeah."

The two guards were knocked out. Hawkeye grabbed one machine gun and tossed the other to Wolverine. They arrived at a door. Guards approached from both sides of the corridor.

"I got the guards if you got the door." said Hawkeye.

Wolverine gave him a strange look but kicked the door. Hawkeye then turned the gun onto the guards. Within seconds they were dead and the door was open. The other four were tied to chairs, looking exhausted but at least they weren't bloodsoaked like Wolverine and Hawkeye.

"What the hell happened to you two?" asked Black Widow.

"Can we talk about this later?" replied Wolverine.

She shrugged and watched as Wolverine popped his claws.

"Lo…"

He shushed her and cut the bindings. Hawkeye was guarding the door.

"How long we got Hawk?!" shouted Wolverine.

No reply. Colossus glanced at Nightcrawler but said nothing as Wolverine cut the bonds. Still… something strange had happened here. The drug, Banshee, was still flowing through his veins but he was certainly stronger. Strong enough to break Nightcrawler's chains without transforming. Wolverine glanced over but he was busy untying Scarlet Witch.

"Alright, we need to find our weapons and cell phones 'cos we can't do jack shit without 'em." said Wolverine.

"Hey guys, I've still got a cell phone on me. I absorbed it. Hit 2305 then 3112. It activates a trackin' beacon in my bow."

Hawkeye handed the phone to Wolverine before firing another blast of machine gun fire. Then they made a quick break for it, following the tracking beacon.

"Colossus, bust the door."

The door was quickly lifted off its hinges and thrown into some unfortunate guards. They darted in, grabbed the phones and weapons and began to back out.

"I'm callin' in the distress signal."

"Hey Wolverine, I think you should call in the distress signal." said Hawkeye as he loaded an arrow onto a string.

"Is he just being an asshole?" asked Scarlet Witch.

"Fuck knows."

Before Wolverine could call in the distress signal there was a burst of gunfire that wasn't coming from the Alpha Strike Team. Then a group of SHIELD agents appeared led by Agent Wilson.

"The helicopter's this way. And we have chimichangas." beamed Wilson.

"Do you have chimichangas?" asked Hawkeye as he limped along.

Wilson looked at Wolverine who shrugged. The six escapees raced after the SHIELD agents before clambering into the helicopter. Wade sighed.

"I hadn't even called in the distress signal. How did ya get here?" asked Wolverine.

Wade shrugged. "This mission should only have taken pros like you an hour, maybe two. So when five passed with nothing we got worried. Fury sent us in. I used to work for Stryker. Then he experimented on me too and I walked."

"He injected us with substances." Natasha said, rubbing her arm.

Wade nodded. "Yeah, he's an asshole like that."

Then he looked carefully at his favourite SHIELD agents. Logan was clutching onto the side of the seat, not that that was unusual, but he was moving differently, heavier. Clint had blood running down the side of his face, from his ears, and he was limping. Piotr was flexing his muscles, staring at them. _Were they always that big?_ Then there was Kurt. His tail had blood on it and he seemed dizzy. Wanda was rubbing her eyes. Natasha was staring at her elbow. Then the helicopter landed on the Helicarrier. Fury was on the runway to meet them.

"Get to the hospital wing. Now."

The six were about to move when Kurt, Logan and Clint tumbled to the ground and lost consciousness. Wade, Luke and Danny scooped them up and carried them to the hospital wing. Fury turned to see Phil glaring at him.

"Don't even think it." he snapped before turning on his heel.

"Sir, it's not your fault."

"Tell that to them."


	11. Aftermath

Logan woke up in the hospital wing of the Helicarrier. Nick was sat by his bed, flicking through paperwork.

"Ya doin' paperwork at my bedside?"

Nick glanced up and smiled. "It's good to see that you're awake. How do you feel?"

Logan sat up. "Honest answer? Like crap. Every part of me aches and it's heavy. What happened to me?"

"Stryker bonded adamantium to your bones. Adamantium is an unbreakable metal. We can't work out how to get the adamantium off you without killing you."

"Yay me. How are the others?"

Nick sat back in his chair. "Well, we've seen a dramatic increase in Piotr's strength. He's gone up maybe five strength classes. Kurt has also had a massive increase in his powers."

"Why?"

"They were injected with Banshee. It's made up of Testosterone, Mutant Growth Hormone, Fentanyl and Dopamine. It enhances powers but we don't know what the side effects are. We do know that it increased their healing factor and also made them immune to diseases."

"So that's good. I guess. And the other three?"

"Wanda and Natasha were injected with a variant of the Super-Soldier Serum. It did what it was supposed to do, enhancing everything and making them immune to disease. So now the entire team can't even catch a cold."

"Clint. Why are ya avoidin' Clint Dad?"

"Do you remember his ears bleeding? We found out that he was stabbed in the ear with a needle. They wanted to enhance his sight. If you take away one sense the others become better to fill in the gap. He's 80% deaf. And he doesn't know."

"Shit."

"Yep. Guess who gets to tell him."

It quickly dawned on Logan exactly what Nick meant.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. NO!"

"I'm sorry Logan."

Logan swore in five different languages before getting to his feet. Nick handed him some clothes and left. Logan then walked through the hospital wing of SHIELD, searching for his team.

"Hey Logan. Wanda's in that room, Natasha's in that one, Clint's in there and the boys are in those two rooms."

"Thanks Marta."

"Dr. Shearing to you!"

Logan just laughed and pushed the door open. Wanda and Natasha were sat on beds, examining their wounds.

"Logan! What… What happened?"

Logan gave them both a very brief summary of what Nick had told him before showing them his new metal claws. He sat down on one of the incredibly uncomfortable beds and told them about the others.

"What is going to happen to us?" asked Wanda quietly.

"We deal with it. Nick wants us ta go ta counsellin'. It's up ta ya if ya go or not. I'm gonna go see the others, comin'?"

"Yes."

The two redheads followed Logan out of the room as he walked into Piotr and Kurt's room. Kurt scrambled to his feet.

"Vanda."

Logan and Natasha exchanged glances with Piotr as they watched Wanda rush over to Kurt and kiss him. For a long time.

"Alright, alright. There's singles here."

The two Germans broke apart, blushing.

"How ya feelin' boys?"

"Powerful." replied Piotr. "Like I could lift the Helicarrier."

"Ja. I zink that I could teleport the whole thing!"

"Don't."

Logan went into Clint's room on his own. After ten minutes the other four would join them. Clint was pale but scowling.

"Why is everythin' so quiet? I can't hear anythin'. I haven't got bandages on either. I checked."

Logan pulled out a piece of paper and wrote _You're deaf._ Clint nodded slowly as he ran a hand through his hair. Logan then explained everything that Stryker tried to do by removing his hearing.

"Can you sign?"

Logan shook his head.

"Learn. How is everyone?"

_Fine. Sore, more powerful but fine._ Then the door swung open and in walked the rest of Alpha Strike. They also explained to Clint that the doctors were making hearing aids that would be ready soon.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Nick watched his mutant team struggle to cope with the aftermath of Alkali Lake. They had nightmares most nights, running to another member of the team for comfort. The hearing aids were ready but they learned sign language anyway because the hearing aids sometimes hurt Clint's ears. So Nick watched and prayed that they wouldn't break. None of them took counselling. Well, not official counselling. Natasha talked with Jess for hours and Kurt wound Maria up with Wanda. Piotr hung round Jasper, looking threatening and making most of the new recruits think that he was Sitwell's bodyguard. Then of course there was Logan and Clint. They beat up punching bags and each other but spent most of their time hovering in Fury's office. But Fury didn't quite expect to be woken at 1:30 in the morning by a blond deaf nineteen-year-old master archer/assassin.

_Knock, knock._ Fury groaned as he got to his feet. He'd spent three hours arguing with the Council before finally getting to sleep. The agent that dared to wake him up would have hell to pay.

"Clint, why are you outside my room?"

Clint blinked sadly and Fury then saw the yellow stain on his boxers.

"Jesus Barton."

"Sorry. I had a bad dream."

"Alright, alright. Let's go and see how bad the damage is."

He hurried after the agent, unable to fathom why Clint had wet the bed. He was nineteen for God's sake. Weren't you supposed to be master of your own bladder at nine never mind nineteen?! But then Fury saw the mess and forgave the archer. Clearly Clint had tried to clean up after himself and failed miserably. Minutes later the bed was stripped and the sheets sent to laundry. Clint was sent to shower and to put a fresh pair of boxers on.

"Did you forget to go to the toilet?"

Then Nick realised that Clint's hearing aids were on the floor and there was a knife in the door. Clint hastily scooped the aids up and put the knife at his side. His wings fluttered behind him.

"Sorry Dad."

Nick smiled slightly but made sure the agent wasn't about to cause himself serious harm.

_7 hours later…_

Nick headed to his office and stopped in the doorway. On his desk was a bagel and a coffee. Maria didn't do that so it must be… the door swung shut to reveal Clint and Logan sat on chairs, eyes fixed on each other.

"What are you doing?"

"Staring match."

Nick sighed. "You know Clint's going to win, don't you?"

"Yeah. But it's nice ta try."

Nick then decided to completely ignore the two boys. They were still boys no matter what they said. Then the bickering started. They had just got back from a mission in Chile so Nick cut them a little slack. _I must be getting old._ He drew the line at Clint throwing paper aeroplanes at his head and Logan trying to draw a smiley face in bright orange of the back of his head.

"Out!"

"We were makin' ya look more humane."

"I don't want to look humane! Either sit down and shut up or get out."

In unison the two boys dropped to the floor. They leaned against the walls and read old files. Every so often one of them would get up to go to the toilet or get more coffee. Nick was included in this too.

"Hey Dad, we got four weeks leave comin' up. Can we crash at ya place?" asked Logan.

Nick glanced over. "Sure. As long as I'm there."

"All o' us?"

"All six of you for two weeks. Then we go to Italy."

"We?" asked Clint.

"Yes. I don't trust you six to be left alone anywhere."

"Shit man, we goin' Italy!" laughed Clint.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :::::::::::::

The way Kurt saw it the team of crazy-ass mutants with authority problems, damaged pasts and scarred hearts had become a family. A heavily dysfunctional, disorganised, screwed-up family true but a family all the same. Nick was the authoritative father who kept the whole thing running smoothly. Logan was the pain-in-the-ass older brother that was always in trouble for bunking off school, smoking, drinking, getting the others to bunk off school, smoke and drink and crossed the line all the time. Piotr was next oldest, the quiet one who didn't push the boundaries as often but tested them every so often. Kurt himself was the quietest one, the one that took his studies seriously and only ever did what he told to do. Wanda was Kurt's girlfriend, viewed as the older, cautious sister by everybody else but to Kurt she was pretty much his world. Natasha was the baby sister that everybody tried to protect but got drop-kicked for trying. And Clint was the pain-in-the-ass younger brother that was always in trouble for doing exactly what Logan did but in a different, sneakier way. Maria, Phil and Jasper were the aunts and uncles that were there but not all the time. Jess and Danny were the cool cousins that had already done their shit and moved on.

The family didn't stop Kurt from having the nightmares. So when he did he crawled through the air vents to Wanda's room so he didn't startle her with his loud noises and also so she didn't shoot him. As he crossed the air vent that led to Logan's room he glanced down. And blinked rapidly because he couldn't believe his eyes. Clint was crawling into Logan's bed, nuzzling at Logan.

"Hey kid, how am I supposed ta sleep when ya pullin' that shit?" murmured Logan.

Clint giggled softly and curled in even closer. Kurt took a deep breath and reopened his eyes. Nope. Still happening.

"What about Nat?"

"She goes to Pete when she has nightmares."

"That's not what I meant and ya know it." replied Logan with his eyes shut.

"She understands. It's a Feral thing."

"Yeah I guess. Doubt anyone else would see it that way."

Clint just laughed and kissed Logan before closing his eyes and curling into his side. Kurt swallowed and backed away from the covering. Logan was right. Nobody at SHIELD would understand if they were found out. And for that reason Kurt decided then and there to take his brothers' secret to the grave.

"Hey Kurt. Bad dream?" asked Wanda when he appeared.

"Ja."

"Anything else?"

"Nein."

She shrugged and fell asleep with his tail wrapped round her and her arms wrapped round him. But he couldn't sleep. Logan and Clint were permanently burned into his retina.


	12. Christmas

Nick stifled a groan as he heard a loud whoop from the back seat. His SUV had been waiting. Logan had claimed shotgun and scrambled into the front, mockingly suggesting that Clint and Natasha sit in the back. Piotr had vetoed that and installed Clint in the very back with himself. In the middle there was Kurt, Natasha and Wanda.

"Who whooped?" asked Logan.

"Me man." Clint called back. "There be some hot blondes in a convertible waitin' to be converted!"

This remark earned him a punch from Piotr and a gun to the head from Natasha.

"Hey baby, I was jokin'!"

"He vas getting his surf on." laughed Kurt.

Wanda and Natasha punched him. Nick rolled his eye and wondered why he'd agreed to go on holiday with six mutants. Of course, it was nearly Christmas as well which only added to the mayhem. Logan grinned at him as they pulled up to Nick's house.

"Wow. Nick, I thought you said this was a house. Not a mansion."

Nick ignored Natasha and got out. The mutants grabbed their stuff and headed into the house. After a very brief but violent argument that ended up with Clint being shut in the airing cupboard and Logan getting punched the rooms were decided. Clint was assigned the box room since it was closest to the roof. Nick fought back a smile as he watched them unpack but keep their weapons on.

"We gotta a plan for loungin'?" asked Logan.

"We have to go to some museums." decided Wanda. "Don't look at me like that, it will be fun."

It was agreed that they would go to Coney Island, several museums, Central Park and somehow fit in a brief ride to the beach for Clint and Piotr to surf. They'd discovered their love of surfing on a mission in Hawaii. Then they were bound for Italy.

"Alright, what do you want to eat?" asked Nick.

"Pizza." said Natasha as she looked at the books.

Nick produced a flyer for the local pizza place.

"Hey they do stuffed crust! Alright, write this down, margarita pizza with stuffed crust and extra cheese."

"You do realise that pizza without meat is an insult to pizza?" asked Logan.

Clint opened his mouth to reply but Kurt elbowed him in the ribs.

"Rhetorical."

The second the food arrived they dug in. And obviously because this was the Alpha Strike Team they couldn't all be in one place at the same time without arguing and poking fun at each other.

"And then this Hawaiian chick turns to him and goes 'You are fugly mister' and you shoulda seen his face!"

"She didn't say fugly!" argued Piotr.

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

Clint joined in. "Hey man, I was there! She said fugly!"

"See!"

"Did… shut up Kurt!"

"Me?!"

Nick just ate. It also turned out that they all had to steal food off each other's plates. And Nick was not excluded in that.

"Hands off!"

Wanda laughed. "Once a thief, always a thief."

"Hear, hear!" replied Natasha.

Eventually they headed up to bed. Nick smirked slightly. It was Christmas soon. As in a week away. And he couldn't wait until they saw their presents. And maybe Coulson was right and he was spoiling them but over the years a lot of money had piled up in his banks and he had nothing else to spend it on.

_Christmas morning…_

"He's been! He's been!" was the loud, overexcited shout that woke Natasha.

She smiled slightly as her door burst open, revealing her boyfriend.

"Tasha, Tasha, guess what?!"

"What?"

"He's been!"

Natasha laughed as she pulled herself out of bed. Clint then dragged her downstairs by the hand. Kurt appeared, also dragging Wanda. Piotr and Logan stumbled out of their respective bedrooms, glancing at each other. Nick also appeared, waiting. Natasha stopped in the front of the tree they'd put up the other night and sighed. There was a huge pile of presents underneath, mostly from agents at SHIELD.

"Look! We've got presents!" shouted Clint loudly.

"What did you expect, turnips?" asked Nick as he went to the kitchen.

He was making them breakfast so they could focus on ripping their presents open.

"Awesome!"

Clint had got a Nerf gun, silver-cleaning kit, book on hawks, hunting knife and a painting. It was Clint perched on a rooftop, overlooking New York. A hawk was perched on one shoulder and on the other sat a small man with a hooked nose and feathery skin. He had three faint lines running up the backs of his hands and a spider on his back. It even had his tattoos on.

"I drew one for everyone."

Piotr had got a surfboard designed to support his weight, a sketchbook, a DVD of From Russia With Love, a book on one of his ancestors and a set of drawing tools. He was very pleased.

"I love mine." said Natasha.

Her painting was of her sat in a nest made of what looked like pillows and blankets. The shadow of a spider crawled up the wall, a gun was strapped to her hip and her arms had a faint silver colour to them. There was a miniature drawing of Clint's drawing on the wall by the spider and her tattoos were displayed. She'd also got a small gold heart-shaped locket, a gun, a Russian flag and a silencer.

"Hurry up!" shouted Nick.

Kurt grinned at his own painting. He was stood in a church, hands joined as though in prayer but there was a chaos symbol on the wall behind him, a moon outside and a red man stood in the shadows. In the background a cross was stood on a table. He'd also got rosary beads, a katana, a potato gun and a poster from his circus days.

"I thought you should practice your aim!" called Clint.

Wanda glanced over at the two boys, now arguing over Kurt's aim. Her painting had her curled up on a sofa with a miniature blue demon stood on the arm of the sofa. The chaos symbol was festooned on the walls and a lightning bolt was in a small corner of the wall. She'd also got a book on the history of magic, a picture of a golden eagle (national animal of Germany), a Swiss Army knife, two T-shirts and a small Statue of Liberty after she'd admired it on their day trips.

"These are brilliant. How did you know what the national animal of Germany was?"

Logan shrugged. "Internet."

He'd got a table-top pool table, a shoulder holster to hold two guns, a toy beaver (the national animal of Canada), a book on wolves and a Stetson. Piotr's drawing of him had him stood in the middle of a forest with snow on the ground. His claws were out, one set bone and the other adamantium. He had nothing perched on his shoulders but a black wolf sat at his feet, baring its teeth. Sat on one of the branches of the trees was a hawk. His dog tags dangled around his neck.

"Breakfast!" called Nick.

The six of them scrambled to the table. Nick ignored the tattoos. They'd all got them done, despite Nick and Phil's wishes. Of course Danny was no bloody help. He'd taken them himself! Plus he had a massive dragon tattoo of his own. All of them had the Greek sign alpha on their upper right arm. On their left arms they differed significantly. Logan had three long claw marks, Clint had a yellow eye, Wanda had the chaos symbol, Natasha had a spider, Piotr had a skull and Kurt had a red devil tail.

"You make brilliant pancakes." said Wanda.

"Thanks. Your presents from me are in the garage."

All of them trekked over to the garage. The keys were hanging up with name tags on them. Logan grabbed his and scanned the garage and saw a motorbike.

"Nice bike. Harley right?" asked Clint.

"Hell yeah. Harley Davidson Titan V-Rod. That is a real bike. Thanks Dad. I mean thank ya so much."

He walked over and actually stroked it. He sat on it and watched the whole thing sink. Clint shook his head and pulled his own keys off, opening his own car.

"Shit! Man you gotta be kiddin'!" laughed Clint as he shot over to the car.

"Vell? Vhat is it?"

"1970 Dodge Challenger."

Piotr laughed. "It's purple."

"Purple is an awesome colour."

"Whatever."

Wanda picked up her keys and beamed as the black Honda S2000 lit up.

"This is just amazing. Thank you so much."

Kurt gaped at his own dark blue Nissan GT-R.

"I cannot say thank you enough."

Natasha got her keys, hugged Nick and walked over to the red Chevrolet Corvette. Piotr grabbed his own set and ran his hand over the silver Nissan Skyline.

"Hey Pete, what's the top speed?"

"Race on Boxing Day boys." said Nick, smiling.

They left the garage regretfully before turning their attention to enjoying the rest of the day. Nick had an Xbox that Clint, Kurt, Piotr and Logan had to go on. Natasha picked up a book and started reading. She had no interest in who won Call of Duty. Wanda curled up on the sofa and started reading the book about magic from Kurt. Nick offered helpful advice like 'You idiot you've been shot!' or 'You're dead now'. They also stuffed themselves full of chocolate and drank a lot. At one point they did shots.

Clint woke up the next morning without a hangover. He grinned as he jumped out of bed. He couldn't wait to get behind the wheel of his beautiful new car. He knocked lightly on Natasha's door and slipped in. She looked up sleepily.

"Hey."

Clint slipped under the cover and pressed his cold hands to her stomach. The next second Clint was flat on his back with a gun in his face and Natasha's furious face above it.

"Baby I'm sorry. Please don't shoot me. I'm really sorry. I'll never do it again, I swear."

Thankfully Natasha put the gun back under her pillow and rolled off him. Clint crossed himself quickly before rolling over to face her. She was still annoyed.

"Baby, don't be mad. I just wanted to say I love you."

Natasha's eyes softened and she kissed him softly. Clint rolled onto his back and pulled her closer to him. They lay like that for a minute before she poked him in the ribs.

"Hey!"

He turned to face her indignantly. Natasha had to laugh at the pout on his face. Then she noticed he wasn't wearing his hearing aids and signed _I asked if you were going to race Piotr today. But you didn't answer so I hit you to get your attention._ Clint's pout melted and he smiled at her and nodded. _And I'm going to win._ She laughed and curled into him. He wrapped both his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. Then there was a banging on the door.

"Hey Talia, I can't wake Clint."

Clint pulled a face and got out of Natasha's bed. He swung the door open and dodged the punch. He followed Piotr downstairs. Logan was already sat at the table, cleaning his Desert Eagle.

"Hey Jamie. Is there any chocolate milk left?"

Piotr laughed. "How old are you?"

"Nineteen."

Natasha said, "Nineteen years old and you still drink chocolate milk?"

Clint didn't answer the question and Natasha remembered that he still didn't have his hearing aids in. Kurt and Wanda walked in.

"Elf, go and get Hawk's aids." said Logan as he put the gun down.

Kurt teleported to Clint's room, grabbed the hearing aids, reappeared in the kitchen and handed them to Clint.

"Danke schon."

Nick came down to see chaos in his kitchen. Somebody had made a huge stack of pancakes and Piotr, Logan and Clint had maple syrup across their faces. Natasha was sat next to Clint and Wanda, avoiding Clint's attempts to smear syrup across her own face. Wanda and Kurt were watching, staying far away.

"Alright, alright. Knock it off children." said Nick as he made himself some cereal. "I have to go back to the Helicarrier so you have the run of the house for a week before you go to Italy."

"Sweet. I say we spend one week together and then split into three groups of two and go to a city we want to visit." said Clint through a mouthful of pancake.

"And who would you be staying with?" asked Piotr.

"Me of course." said Natasha. "But not if he has syrup on his face."

Everybody laughed and it was decided that Clint and Natasha would go to Rome, Wanda and Kurt were bound for Venice and Piotr and Logan were going to Sardinia, the best surfing spot in Italy. Nick got into his own car, said his goodbyes and drove back to the waiting Quinjet. The mutants watched him go before turning to each other.

"Alright, so what are we gonna do?" asked Clint.

Logan grinned. "Soup up the cars. One at a time. At night we race 'em. Dad left the name of street racin' places."

Piotr broke into a broad smile. "Oh this is going to be fun!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

They unlocked the garage and walked in.

"We could start with the bike." suggested Wanda.

"No. The bike's good. It's got everythin' it needs and ya don't add shit to a bike."

"A less grumpy owner, perhaps?" offered Kurt.

Logan gave him the 'metal middle' and turned to the Challenger. Clint ran a loving hand over it as he lifted the hood.

"Top speed?"

Clint replied, "105. 0-60 in 6.2 seconds."

"Then let's get ta work."

The girls had little interest in fixing the cars so they offered random ideas and tested the cars out.

"I'll take the Dodge out." said Natasha as she took the keys off Kurt.

"Don't crash her." warned Clint.

"I won't."

Natasha rolled her eyes, kissed him and slipped into the driver's seat. The car roared and took off. Then the four trainee mechanics turned their attention to the Skyline. It had become rapidly obvious that Piotr and Clint were born racing drivers and so was Logan. Since Logan didn't want his bike changed for racing they were focussing on Clint and Piotr's car.

"Nah that won't work."

"Will."

"Not."

"I'm with Logan here Pete. That's gonna fuck the whole thing up."

A car skidded to a halt. Clint looked up to see Natasha stepping out of his Dodge.

"Well?"

"Oversteers." she replied.

Logan swore under his breath and Kurt asked, "Sure that wasn't you?"

Natasha shot him a filthy look and walked over to where Wanda was sat. Eventually, after much swearing, one dropped engine part, one wrench thrown at Logan's head, two fierce arguments and five breaks later the cars were done.

"Let's race." said Logan as he got on his bike.

Clint grinned and revved his engine. He and Piotr shot off down the drive, deliberately spinning their wheels so the gravel hit Logan's face. Natasha, Wanda and Kurt were right behind them. Clint was in the lead, steering his way through the streets. _This is the good life baby._ He picked up the walkie-talkie that was fitted to the car.

"This is frickin' awesome!"

Natasha laughed and replied, "Wait until I beat you in the quarter-mile."

"I will take you all." crackled Piotr's voice.

The banter continued as they drove into the warehouse where the street racing was held. They parked and got out. Logan and Piotr turned their attention to the girls flocking around the cars.


	13. New Recruit Day

Natasha swatted Clint's hand as he reached for his Nerf gun. Seriously, Logan should not have got it for him. They were landing on the Helicarrier. Needless to say everybody had back-up careers as street racers and there was a small chance that Logan and Piotr had broken a statue in Sardinia. Apparently that wasn't them. Kurt and Wanda had been to Venice and just smiled shy smiles whenever they were asked about it.

"Promise we can go back to Rome one day." whispered Clint.

"I promise."

"Especially that little hotel."

"You had separate rooms, da?" asked Piotr.

Clint rolled his eyes at Natasha. Piotr smirked. They got off the Helicarrier and walked back to their rooms. Danny glanced over at them.

"Hope you didn't let your training slip."

"Of course not Danny-san." replied Logan sarcastically.

"Shut up."

Since SHIELD never stopped for anything before long the recruits were hurled back into their daily life of training, working in the workshop, eating and sleeping. And it just so happened that there were new recruits today. And New Recruits Day translated into Terrify New Recruits Day for most of the Alpha Strike Team.

"Hello Maria."

Maria narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Kurt as he smiled at her. Though Kurt was one of the more mature mutants he still pranked people without mercy.

"Hello Kurt. Where are the other members of Alpha Strike?"

"You mean ze Psychotic Six?" asked Kurt cheerfully.

One of the new recruits frowned. "Psychotic begins with a P."

"Which sounds like an S. Have to go."

He teleported away. Maria hated the women recruits sometimes. They were just pains in the backside. So they carried on walking. Then Logan appeared and Maria went on hyper-alert.

"Logan. What are you doing here?"

"I live here." he replied, smirking.

By now Maria could practically _feel_ three of the recruits falling hopelessly in love with him. She turned to them, noticing Logan's practised eye flick over them, settling on the one redhead. God, between him, Clint and Kurt no redhead was safe. Apart from Dr. Shearing but that was because she was a doctor and according to Clint 'can like stab you with needles'. Well quite. Anyway.

"These are our new recruits. I believe they will be watching Agents Romanoff and Maximoff spar." For the benefit of the recruits she explained, "Black Widow and Scarlet Witch respectively. They are on the same team as Agent Howlett."

Logan smirked. "Don't call me Agent Howlett. I'm the big bad Wolverine."

Damn. Now five of them were in love with him. He smirked and winked at the redhead who just raised an eyebrow. He wandered off, probably to find Clint, Kurt and Piotr to plan the next prank.

"Is he attached to anyone?" asked one of the women, Ophelia Sarkissan if Maria remembered correctly.

"No. Agent Howlett does not believe in commitment of the romantic kind. Ask one or two of the female agents around here."

Sarkissan smirked. "I'll soon change that."

They walked on through the Bridge until Clint dropped down from the walkways.

"Hey Maria. How you doin'?"

Maria retorted, "I was doing a lot better before an obnoxious Iowan mutant archer appeared."

Clint just laughed and winked at the women. "She loves me really."

Morse smiled. "I can see why."

"CLINT!" shouted a loud, heavily accented voice.

_Crap_ thought Maria. _Now Piotr's here._ The giant Russian hurried over.

"I did it! I got one of the technicians to spike the Nerf gun with poison."

"Sweet! These are the new recruits."

Piotr, thankfully, didn't appear too bothered by them, instead dragging the younger man off to look at guns.

"What about Agent Barton? Is he attached?" asked Morse.

"Yes. Very. To Black Widow."

Morse smirked inwardly. She'd change _that_. They continued on until they arrived at the gym. Two redheads, Romanoff and Maximoff presumably, were waiting patiently.

"Sorry about that. We ran into your team."

Neither woman said a word, instead launching into the spar. Maria smirked as the recruits' eyes widened, watching the impossible kicks, flips and punches. Then the doors swished open and Maria's heart sank. The four male members of Alpha Strike Team had arrived. Kurt teleported over to Wanda and gave her a quick kiss. Piotr walked over to Natasha and hugged her before speaking to her in Russian.

"I thought Agent Barton was with Agent Romanoff?" asked Morse.

Maria really didn't like her or Sarkissan either for that matter. "He is. Agent Rasputin and Agent Romanoff are like big brother and little sister. God help you if you upset any of Alpha Strike because the others will be down on you like a ton of bricks."

Clint and Logan had started arguing. In Feral. Wonderful. Morse and Sarkissan looked bemused as they tried to work out the words. Kurt grabbed hold of the other four and teleported over to Maria.

"What language is that?" asked Morse.

"Feral. Don't bother trying to learn it, only Ferals can speak it." said Natasha dismissively.

"What are they arguing about?" asked Maria tiredly.

Piotr said, "Clint got the technicians to change the дартс… how you say? Darts? Darts. We change it to poison, enough to kill a horse."

"Oh God. Clint didn't test it on Logan did he?"

Wanda rolled her eyes. "He tests everything on Logan."

The argument had reached fever-pitch now. Clint's hands were flashing through the air and the tips of Logan's claws were beginning to show. So Clint punched Logan. The gym had fallen silent apart from the angry growls emanating from the agents' mouths so the crunch of bone on adamantium was heard throughout. Logan crumpled to the ground.

"Oh my God!"

Then Logan got back up and threw Clint clear across the gym. He would have impacted the weights had the blond agent not transformed and flew over to Natasha. Maria raised an eyebrow as the annoyed agent appeared from a cloud of feathers. God, Morse was actually drooling.

"He's bein' mean to me again."

Bobbi watched as Rasputin raised an eyebrow.

"You poisoned him."

Barton was pouting. It was a really cute pout.

"So?"

"I give up."

Natasha sighed. "I'll go deal with Canuck."

She walked off to go and deal with the raging Canadian and Bobbi finally worked up the courage to make her move. She stepped forwards and rested her hand on Barton's arm.

"Hey. I'm Bobbi. Do you wanna give me a private tour?"

This was her best seductive voice. A chilling silence filled the room as Barton's eyes widened.

"He happens to belong to me." said Natasha icily.

"Oh please, you don't deserve him."

All four male members tensed their muscles but they couldn't hit her. They had a code. Luckily Wanda and Natasha did not have this particular rule. Wanda backhanded her across to Natasha.

"You bitch!"

"Talk about my sister like that again and you'll be dead."

Maria watched, bored, as Natasha proceeded to beat Morse up. She stalked away and Clint shot after her, signing all the way.

"Let's go."

Logan lit up his cigar, winked at the redhead and watched them file out. God, New Recruit Day was fun. Kurt and Piotr rolled their eyes. Wanda had disappeared.

"Right, the guys are in now. We get ta beat 'em up."

Kurt rolled his eyes again and teleported them out of the gym.

Danny groaned under his breath when he saw Natasha and Wanda appear. Why did they have to do this?! Clint and Kurt wouldn't be far away and that of course meant Logan and Piotr wouldn't be far away either. Combine that with recruits… well they'd stopped trying to get the dent out of the floor. So he greeted the two female agents courteously.

"Hi Danny. New recruits?" asked Wanda.

"Yes. So don't let Clint and Logan near them."

The two redheads laughed in sync. He was sure they did it on purpose to really scare the rookies. They walked away but Kurt teleported into the room. Danny felt the rookies jump but he watched as Kurt spun Wanda round with his tail and dropped a kiss on her lips. Natasha said something in Russian that made them both blush.

"No way is she with that devil!" snarled Williams.

"Well, she has been for about a year now."

"What about the other one?"

Danny sighed. "That was Agent Romanoff, the Black Widow. She is with Agent Barton, better known as Hawkeye."

"Easy to break her away."

"After four years? I should warn you that if you anger any of the Alpha Strike Team, the rest will come after you with a vengeance. I'd tell you to ask some of the agents that have done exactly that but… you can't."

Most of them had quit and Fury had fired the others. Although, there was the one agent that had washed up with claw marks across his chest, an arrow in his eye, static marks on his body, all his ribs broken and a long stab wound, like you'd get from a tail and hex marks. Yeah… maybe he wouldn't tell the rookies that.

"Yeah right." muttered the main one, Bowers. "When I see her I'm gonna get her."

Apparently there was only one normal rookie. He raised an eyebrow at Danny who rolled his eyes. They walked on, arriving at the Bridge and the Dent. Otherwise known as Rookie Hell. Sure enough Natasha and Piotr were there, bickering amicably in Russian. Danny caught the words 'stupid', 'bullet', 'poison' and something that sounded like 'hawk'. Of course, the Nerf gun. Kurt had his tail draped across Wanda's shoulders as he studied a mission brief and Wanda examined a gun.

"Where are the Troublesome Twosome?" asked Danny.

Natasha glanced up. "Logan's trying to sleep with that redhead from earlier and Clint's probably at the range, in the workshop or trying to shoot Logan with the damn Nerf gun."

Piotr laughed, a deep rumbling sound that echoed across the Bridge. "Serves him right for getting Clint a weapon."

Danny shrugged but Bowers stepped forward.

"Hey sexy girl. Why don't you and I go someplace and I'll teach you a few things."

Before anyone could move however, Bowers found himself pinned against the wall by an angry blond man with brown wings flapping behind him. His eyes were yellow and piercing. Bowers couldn't actually breathe at this point, since the man had gripped his throat.

"Put him down." ordered Rand.

Nothing. Several other agents, hell even the Director were telling the winged man to put Bowers down. Bowers began to panic as his vision started to go black. Then a deep, rough voice spoke.

"Put him down Hawk."

Hawkeye. Oh crap. Then an evil smile spread across the agent's face as he slammed Bowers down into the dent on the floor. Huh, he fit pretty much perfectly. Shock and pain flooded through his body. He blinked up as Hawkeye turned to the Director.

"I put him down Dad."

_Dad?! _Crap. Not only had he pissed off one of the most dangerous agents in the world, he'd pissed off the Director's son. Hawkeye walked off. The other three male agents i.e. the ones that weighed the most walked straight across Bowers.

"Get him out of the dent." sighed Danny.

He and the Director shared a look as Bowers clambered out. Thank God the Alpha Strike Team were on SHIELD's side.

"Let's continue with the tour."


	14. Budapest

It took Logan a minute to work out where he was. Then he glanced to his side and saw a very familiar mop of blond hair. Crawling out of bed he headed over to the sink.

"Logan?" mumbled said mop of blond hair.

"Right here kid."

"Don't call me a kid. I'm twenty-three."

"And very mature." teased Logan.

They'd been working for Alpha Strike for seven years now, well four for Wanda. Logan was twenty-five, Piotr was twenty-four, Clint and Kurt were twenty-three and Wanda and Natasha were twenty-two. And they were currently in Budapest. Well, Clint and Logan were. They'd been assigned a mission. Pose as gay lovers and kill someone. It worked very well but Clint had a black eye.

"I'm hungry."

"Ya always hungry." replied Logan absently.

Clint scowled at Logan before checking his reflection in the mirror. The others were flying out to help them with the newest mission. The black eye was very colourful. He'd been glad when Logan stuck his claws into the man's stomach and twisted. Still… it had really hurt. He turned to his partner-in-crime and grinned. The Wolverine was cooking and swearing. The two kinda went hand-in-hand with Logan though.

"Move over." said Clint when he got fed up of watching Logan poke the grill.

Logan smirked as he withdrew. He knew the Hawk would take over eventually. He got so pissed off so Logan got good food. Then there was a knock at the door. Clint turned the grill off and picked up his knives. Logan grabbed his Colt and Desert Eagle.

"Who is it?"

"The Fellowship." rumbled a deep voice.

Logan relaxed. "In."

The name had sprung up from Natasha comparing Logan and Clint to Aragorn and Legolas when they watched the films. The other four appeared as Logan put his guns on the table. Natasha couldn't help but smirk at the unorthodox family scene. Logan, the undisputed head of the family, was rooting for his double shoulder holster, a present from her that allowed him to carry both guns under a suit. Clint was singing under his breath, Dean Martin from the sound of it, while cooking for six. Piotr had settled his large frame at the table with Kurt. Wanda had sat on the bed, playing with Clint's harness.

"When you walk down the street with a cloud at your feet… you're in love." sang Clint as he dumped a plate of bacon in front of Piotr.

Logan pulled his lighter out. "Gotcha lil' bugger."

Then he sat at the table as Clint dropped a plate in front of him. When the others had food he drifted over to Natasha.

"When you walk down in a dream but you know you're not dreamin'…. scuzza me but back in old Napoli… that's amore."

He kissed her and she kissed him back. Piotr cleared his throat as the two broke apart. Yes he was pleased they were together and had been for seven years but still… he was Talia's big brother. It was his job to be a pain in the ass. Clint stuck his tongue out at Piotr and sat down on the only other chair. Natasha perched on his lap and carried on eating. Wanda was also sat on Kurt.

"How did you get a black eye?" asked Wanda.

"I got punched."

Natasha looked down at him. "I thought it was an easy mission."

"It was. But we hadn't planned on the sadistic bastard being in the same room as me alone. Apparently he gets off on beating people up and since I was supposed to be playing the abused lover of that ugly thing over there I had to take it."

Logan said, "That ugly thing would like to point out that he only got one punch in before that ugly thing killed him and his bodyguards."

Natasha and Wanda laughed and took the empty plates to the small kitchen. She frowned when she saw there was an arrow in the fridge. As in, literally lying in the fridge with the milk.

"Hawkeye why is there an arrow in the fridge?"

Clint asked, "Did you just call me hot guy?"

Piotr answered, "Nobody would call you hot guy."

Clint scowled as Logan asked, "Are ya aids workin'? Shit that's my phone."

After much swearing and searching Logan located his phone. He answered it, giving the 'metal middle' to Clint as he called several obscenities over.

"Sorry Dad that was Clint."

"I gathered." Nick sounded less than amused. "Listen to me Logan. This is a HYDRA _army_ we are talking about. You've seen what their weapons could do. I know that was a long time ago but all the same… be careful. All of you."

"We will be." said Logan quietly.

Nick hung up without saying goodbye. Neither of them thought that would affect them so badly in the next few years. But they didn't expect this mission to be worse than Alkali Lake.

"What did Dad say?" asked Clint.

Logan rapidly filled them in as they picked up their weapons. Then an explosion rocked the city.

"_Mehlock_." swore Clint.

"What?" asked Wanda.

"Can't hurt ya ears with it. If ya were Ferals he'd never had said it." replied Logan.

Then the six of them darted down the stairs and onto the street. The army was marching down the street, wearing the characteristic uniform of HYDRA. Wolverine had already snapped into combat mode.

"Hawkeye, get on a roof. Take 'em out but when ya run outta arrows get Ronin out there. Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, I want ya to go down this road. Take out the stragglers. Nightcrawler, get civilians outta the danger zone but fuck knows how far that is. So go. Colossus, ya with me. Smash."

Colossus nodded and turned into steel. The others shot away as Wolverine and Colossus charged head-on into the army. Wolverine let out a roar of anger as bullets strafed his body but he fired his Colt and Desert Eagle into the approaching mass, watching as they hit the ground. Before he could reload however, the army was upon him and he pocketed the Colt, popped the claws on his left hand and began to use the Eagle's butt as a cudgel. The world began to turn red as he fought, warm blood spraying his face as he sliced with his claws. Before long the Eagle returned to its holster and he tore into the army with all six twelve-inch adamantium claws.

"Duck!" shouted one of the army as Colossus swung his fist at their face.

He laughed as he altered the course of his arm, bringing the steel bicep down to smash the man's helmet open. Then he threw the body at the man who'd shouted. He could hear Wolverine roaring somewhere but wasn't interested. Before long he'd ended up being swept down the flow of bodies, attacking every weakness. He spotted a flash of blue in the swirling mob of grey but ignored it. Then he sent a body sailing into the river. Then there was another almighty explosion and the world went black.

"_Mehlock_." cursed Clint again as he watched his arrow land.

The second after he'd released the arrow he'd seen Colossus. He felt sick as he saw the huge man drop to the ground. But he didn't hesitate to fire arrow after arrow into the HYDRA mob. Then he ran out of arrows and let Ronin out. He sailed down to land amongst a group of goons. Before long six were dead and the other four were either dying or unconscious.

"Listen, they're sending out groups of about ten to various bits. I think they're setting up more explosives." Silence. "Does anybody copy?!"

Five different voices grunted their affirmation but Colossus added, "Next time, watch the arrow."

"Sorry."

Black Widow was too focussed on punching people to fully acknowledge the words. But she did stumble onto a group setting up explosives. One quick venom blast and they were out of the picture. She also explained about the explosives before turning to kill one HYDRA goon. But she didn't see the man behind her, using his gun to knock her out. Scarlet Witch saw and promptly killed the man. She moved on, rapidly reporting that Black Widow was temporarily out.

"Shush." soothed Nightcrawler.

Unfortunately the small child didn't shush. Nightcrawler handed the child over to his mother before turning and killing six HYDRA agents. Running on he found another small group and took them out easily. The news on Black Widow worried him but he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"Look out!" screamed someone.

The next thing he knew he was sailing towards a brick wall, knocking out a building. Hawkeye saw it. But then he was hit and his hearing aids fell out and shattered. So he broke the man's neck. He moved on, fighting like the demon his brother was supposed to be. But the next thing Hawkeye saw was the ground as someone shoved him to the floor. Reaching up with his knife he twisted, watching as the light went out of the man's eyes and blood spattered the ground.

Wolverine ducked the swing from the swordsman. Obviously he had to stumble onto the most highly trained group. A master ninja swordsman that Deadpool himself would struggle to beat. Wonderful. But Wolverine was the best at what he did. So they fought brutally. The rest of the group were dead. But the swordsman didn't give up. His sword was made of vibranium, Wolverine could sense it. The sword swung down, Wolverine didn't move in time and the next thing he knew he had a searing pain in his shoulder that threatened to wipe him out. Instead he shot the man in the head with his Eagle. Looking down, he saw his arm had sliced off.

"_Mehlock._"

He managed to pull out his phone and hit SHIELD's number. It rang five times before it was picked up by a woman he didn't recognise.

"Can I help you?"

"Put me through to the Director. NOW!"

"Putting you through."

Seconds later he heard a click, signalling the Director had picked up. But before Wolverine could speak he was interrupted by a smooth, cold, German voice.

"This is Director Johann Schmidt. Who is this?"

"Where's Director Fury?!"

"Oh. He's gone. He put up quite a fight though."

Wolverine's insides turned to ice.

"Which agent is this?"

"The one that's gonna see ya in Hell."

With that Wolverine hung up. Then his world started to turn black. One thought buzzed through his head. _SHIELD's gone. SHIELD's gone. SHIELD's gone. _Then his world turned completely black.


	15. Epilogue

**A/N: OK, this is the epilogue! But there are going to be two follow-ups and I'm posting as quickly as I can! This is just going to fill in what's happened to everybody and set up the start of the sequel 'Divided We Stand'. **

Colossus stumbled over to where a blue tail was sticking out from under some rubble. He lifted up the rubble and tossed it aside. A pair of gold eyes blinked up at him.

"Can I have a hand up?" he asked in German.

The Russian picked him up. "We need to find the others.

"Black Vidow is out. Scarlet Vitch said so."

Colossus clenched his fist but nodded and they walked on. That is… until they found two dead redheads. Their faces had been beaten in, making them unrecognisable but there was a spider tattooed on one girl's arm.

"Natalia." whispered Colossus sadly.

"Vanda. My beautiful Vanda."

The two of them looked at each other and ran on, before they found a dead hawk.

"_Mein Gott_, vy are you doing this?"

The Russian and German ran until they reached a small clearing of rubble. Bodies were strewn around the place with claw marks. A man was clutching a bloody sword. And then there was another bloody body. The two ran over, kneeling down as they examined their teammate.

"Wolverine?" murmured Colossus.

"Ow… Where are the others?" he murmured.

"_Toten._" replied Nightcrawler emotionlessly.

Wolverine's heart sank. "SHIELD too. I rang but Schmidt answered. My arm."

Blood was oozing sluggishly from the dark wound where his arm used to be. Colossus grabbed both Wolverine and Nightcrawler.

"Take us somewhere safe."

Nightcrawler nodded and they vanished in a puff of blue smoke.

Hawkeye opened his eyes and scrambled to his feet. He needed to find the others. Quickly. So he made his very shaky way across the city, looking everywhere. Then he came to a body-strewn area. There was a dead man with a sword and an arm. An arm with three tattooed claw marks on them.

"_Mehlock_." muttered Hawkeye for the third time that day.

He stumbled forwards, dropping to his knees by the arm. The body had disappeared. The bastards. Tears began to flow from his eyes as all three personalities grieved. Then a soft hand was rested on his shoulder. He sprang round, knife at their throat until he worked out it was Scarlet Witch.

"Where are the others?" he asked slowly.

Scarlet Witch signed out _Dead. We saw Kurt's body buried under rubble and Colossus… well during the fight I saw him fall in the river and sink. But Natasha's here. She's alive. We saw a pair of redheaded girls with their heads smashed in. They must have thought it was us._ Then Black Widow appeared. The three of them stood together, Clint clutching the disembodied arm. A Quinjet arrived and they were taken to the Helicarrier. The hand print was ran through SHIELD's database.

"It's Agent Howlett." said Jasper.

And that was when Clint's world crashed down on him.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::::::::::::::::::::::::

Piotr looked around at the gravel drive. There was a massive mansion in front of them. Piotr didn't know where they were but he was conscious of the fact that Logan was bleeding in his arms.

"Knock already!"

Kurt rapped on the door with his tail.

"Where are we?"

"Westchester."


End file.
